On May 14, 2022, Norbert Link will present “Comments on News and Prophecy, May 14, 2022, and Brian Gale will present the sermon, titled, “Remember the Frog”.

The live services are available, over video and audio, at http://eternalgod.org/live-services/ (12:30 pm Pacific Time; 1:30 pm Mountain Time; 2:30 pm Central Time; 3:30 pm Eastern Time; 8:30 pm Greenwich Mean Time; 9:30 pm Central European Time). Just click on Connect to Live Stream.

A leaked initial and not-binding draft of US Supreme Court Judge Samuel Alito, stating that the majority opinion from the court would overturn the judgment known as Roe v. Wade, which legalized the right to abortion across the country, has been met with outrage and condemnation. The leak has been described as an “original sin for judicial ethics,” and “one of the greatest breaches of security in the history of the Court.”

If Roe v. Wade were overturned, then each state would be allowed to decide whether to permit, restrict or ban abortions within its own borders. It is estimated that 26 states would be certain or likely to restrict abortion procedures.  On the other hand, pro-abortion states have been taking aggressive action to expand abortions, including, in particular, California, Colorado, Oregon and Illinois.

Practicing Catholic politicians like Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi or Chuck Schumer strongly opposed the proposed decision, saying that the woman’s right to choose must be upheld and that the decision would be “one of the worst and most damaging decisions in modern history,” even though the Catholic Church prohibits most cases of abortion, focusing thereby on the killing of an innocent unborn child. But Joe Biden said that “a woman’s right to choose is fundamental.” However, his church is not consistent either, and the alleged Pope’s declaration, if true, that Joe Biden is a good Catholic would be hypocritical and shameful.

Apart from the egregious violation of ethics and confidentiality, the most shocking but not surprising development has been the outrageous reaction by progressives to the substance and contents of the leaked draft. Vice President Kamala Harris responded: “How dare they tell a woman what she can do and cannot do with her own body?… How dare they try to stop her from determining her own future? How dare they try to deny women their rights and their freedoms?”

Kamala Harris echoed of course what Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer had said, and they are by no means the only ones. For instance, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that the “right to choose is a woman’s right and a woman’s right alone.”

On the other hand, Joe Biden took quite a different stance in the past when he opposed the Supreme Court’s decision to legalize abortion one year after Roe v. Wade. “I don’t think that a woman has the sole right to say what should happen to her body,” he told the Washingtonian in 1974, one year after the court legalized abortion. Not only does Joe Biden’s changed position show how extreme the Democrat Party has become, but it is also obvious that Joe Biden has become a tool in the hands of the radical left.

In our new booklet, “The Ten Commandments”, we address the question of abortion. In that booklet, we prove from the Bible that life begins with conception. No matter what progressives and “pro-choice” proponents might say, the killing of innocent unborn life in the mother’s womb IS murder in the eyes of God. While those who uphold abortion state foolishly that it is strictly and solely the decision of the mother whether or not to kill her child, the rights of the unborn child and of the father are simply and conveniently ignored, and God is completely forgotten.

As we point out in our booklet, “Statistics of abortions are nothing short of alarming.” At the end of May 2019, “Abortions in the USA since 1973 (the time of Roe v Wade) are now over 61 million. Worldwide abortions for 2019 were 16 million. Worldwide abortions since 1980 are over 1.5 billion… Over 200,000 abortions are performed each year in Britain… One of the nations with the highest rate of abortion is Russia… [F]or every 1,000 women between 15 to 44, 37.4 had an abortion. Another nation with a high abortion rate is Cuba [with] an abortion rate of 28.9.”

We also list in our booklet the horrifying abortion rates in many other countries. Most of them would be described as “civilized.”

Let me be clear, then. Abortion for ANY reason is murder in the eyes of God—and it should be in our eyes. With this godly understanding, it is obvious that there can be no exception, and in this area, not only progressive “pro-choice” proponents, but also conservatives and religious leaders, taking the “pro-life”-position, fail miserably as well, and that almost universally. To illustrate the point, let me quote from an article by Breitbart, dated May 5:

“Kathy Barnette, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, released a powerful video Tuesday in which she discussed being conceived in rape when her mother was just age 11… Barnette affirmed her life has value despite having been the byproduct of a tragic act of violence [stating:] ‘In the world the Left desires, I would never have been born…’ Barnette said her own experience made her become more adamant about the sanctity of life and cautioned people against believing that children like her should be aborted. ‘Even among Christians, even among staunch conservatives, an exception to the rule of being pro-life, for many, is in the case of rape, and yet my life has value,’ she said. Barnette cited her own family, including her husband and children, as evidence of this value. ‘None of this would have happened if the exception to the rule had applied,’ she said.”

What a powerful testimony! I wholeheartedly agree with her sentiment. Don’t you? Let me repeat: In God’s eyes, EVERY abortion is murder. It is a horrible crime and can NEVER be justified, regardless of the circumstances.

In this issue, we devote many articles to the formation of the new “Disinformation Governance Board” in the USA, warning of the dangers of such a body and of the people involved who are being accused of having a history of spreading lies and misinformation… which, according to some quoted articles, can also be said, allegedly, of the US government itself over many years. It is contended that the formation of the new body is another unconstitutional step toward suppression of “unpopular” opinions, manifesting the ever-growing move towards total dictatorship within the USA.

We address efforts in some US states and by US companies, as well as in Canada, to continue the murder of abortion [please view our NEW StandingWatch program, titled, “(When) Is Abortion Murder in the Eyes of God?” and our recent StandingWatch program, titled, “Free Abortions in California… ‘Repent or Perish!’”’]; the hopeless and incurable division within the USA; the obvious conflict of interest of Joe Biden’s new Press Secretary; and we publish some tough questions for Joe Biden and speak on the mysterious bewilderment pertaining to his presidency. We also address the curse of inflation for the American people and the opinion that the EU needs an army; as well as the surprising victory of the nationalist party Sinn Fein in Northern Ireland, which seeks unification with Ireland.

We speak on political propaganda relating to Russia, Ukraine and Germany [please view in this context our recent StandingWatch program, titled, “Did Hitler Have Jewish Blood?”]; Russia’s May 9 “Victory Day”; the consequences of the war in Ukraine; and we conclude with frictions between the Pope and the Russian Orthodox Church and the obvious attempt of the Pope to cave in by taking certain political positions.

Our Lying Government

Politico wrote on April 29:

“Who among us thinks the government should add to its work list the job of determining what is true and what is disinformation? And who thinks the government is capable of telling the truth? Our government produces lies and disinformation at industrial scale and always has.

“This is the government that lied about winning the war in Vietnam, that said the Watergate affair was a ‘third-rate burglary,’ that fought a  secret war in Nicaragua, that lied about a clandestine love affair in the White House, that used faulty intelligence to force a war in the Middle East… President Barack Obama shortchanged the truth. Of 600 Obama statements… a quarter of them fell into the ‘red zone’ of being false, mostly false, or ‘pants on fire’ false. Not so long ago,  50 intelligence officials assured the nation that the Hunter Biden laptop story bore ‘all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.’… The idea that Covid could have come from a Chinese lab was similarly dismissed as disinformation; now it’s considered a legitimate possibility by the Biden administration. Meanwhile, we have documented proof from the Washington Post that…  Joe Biden can’t handle simple truths! (We don’t need to reassess the Donald Trump presidency here, do we?)…

“After branding something disinformation, it’s only a short slide to suppressing the contested information… If Russian disinformation is a problem, it has been so for almost a century… the Russians started sending out fake defectors in the 1930s to spread disinformation in the West. After World War II, the Soviets shifted their focus to the United States. Two years after the surrender of Nazi Germany, Soviet leadership sought to influence public opinion by covertly funding newspapers and radio stations around the world… It forged documents and attempted to plant them in credible publications. In one disinformation campaign, it promulgated the tall tale that AIDS was the product of an American biological weapons experimentation…”

Shocking when you think about all the lies that our governments have been spreading…

A Long History of Lying

The Ron Paul Institute wrote on May 7:

 “The most egregious and blatant official U.S. disinformation campaign in years took place three weeks before the 2020 presidential election. That was when dozens of former intelligence officials purported, in an open letter, to believe that authentic emails regarding Joe Biden’s activities in China and Ukraine, reported by The New York Post, were ‘Russian disinformation.’ That quasi-official proclamation enabled liberal corporate media outlets to uncritically mock and then ignore those emails as Kremlin-created fakes, and it pressured Big Tech platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to censor the reporting at exactly the time Americans were preparing to decide who would be the next U.S. president.

“The letter from these former intelligence officials was orchestrated by trained career liars — disinformation agents — such as former CIA Director John Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. Yet that letter was nonetheless crucial to discredit and ultimately suppress the New York Post‘s incriminating reporting on Biden. It provided a quasi-official imprimatur — something that could be depicted as an authoritative decree — that these authentic emails were, in fact, fraudulent…

“The purpose of Homeland Security agents is to propagandize and deceive, not enlighten and inform. The level of historical ignorance and stupidity required to believe that U.S. Security State operatives are earnestly devoted to exposing and decreeing truth… is off the charts… That the Board will be run by such a preposterous and laughable figure as Nina Jankowicz… has, in some sense, made this board seem more benign and harmless. After all, how nefarious and dangerous can a board be when it is governed by a person as frivolous and banal as this, calling herself ‘the Mary Poppins of disinformation’? But just as banality can be a vehicle for evil, it can also be a vehicle for repression and tyrannical control…

“… this new Disinformation Czar has herself ratified and helped spread virtually every disinformation campaign concocted by the union of the Democratic Party and corporate media over the last five years… An agency with a long history of lying, run by life-long disinformation agents, has just created a board to issue… official decrees, all overseen by a person who is so partisan and ideologically motivated that it is hard to take her seriously. Whether or not you take her seriously, the power that Homeland Security has just secured for itself is anything but a joke.”

In fact, it is frightening and extremely dangerous.

Ill-Defined, Biased and Dangerous

Politico wrote on May 5:

“In an almost offhand fashion last week, Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told several congressional committees that his Department of Homeland Security had created a new body, the Disinformation Governance Board (DGB). He offered few specifics as to how it was combating disinformation, and few have come since, apart from his meaningless comment that the DGB would have no ‘operational authority or capacity.’ In short, the message amounted to ‘There’s nothing to see here or worry about.’ We disagree, and we have seen this saga before. An episode from over a hundred years ago tells us a great deal about how such a venture can go wrong, and to some extent already has.

“We refer here to the Committee on Public Information, created by President Woodrow Wilson on April 14, 1917, one week after the United States entered World War I. This was done through a three-sentence executive order that offered no meaningful specifics other than that the CPI would be headed by the pyrotechnic, muckraking journalist George Creel.

“Wilson seems to have had in mind that the CPI would be responsible for censoring information that compromised military operations. This, of course, was a matter of legitimate concern. But in the next 18 months that the war lasted, the CPI grew willy-nilly into a ministry of propaganda… The CPI soon began declaring ‘the facts,’ calling out Americans who dared to dissent, and even chastising small town editors who took minor exception to administration policy…

“The appointment of Creel was another major misstep… From his early days in Kansas City and later Denver, his crusading journalism was overwrought and his political alliances never far from the surface…

“The appointment of Nina Jankowicz as executive director of the DGB is similarly ill-advised… Jankowicz has drawn criticism for comments that smack of political bias, among other things appearing to wholly dismiss the Hunter Biden laptop controversy as Russian disinformation…

“The biggest problem, however, was with the very idea of a government agency monitoring truth… Despite its claims to provide only facts, however, [the CPI] could not resist playing on emotions and providing tendentious information that fed on unfounded fears of German spies lurking everywhere. Those ‘spies,’ in effect, were people who challenged Wilson’s administration policies…  if America learned anything from its experience with the CPI, it is this: An organization that is ill-defined can be anything it wants to be… And that is particularly perilous when that organization is a governmental entity that has the power to speak directly to 330 million Americans….”

Warnings from the past are usually ignored.

Unconstitutional Assault on Freedom of Speech

The Week wrote on May 4:

“The Biden administration’s plan to create a Disinformation Governance Board is a ‘shockingly unconstitutional assault on freedom of speech,’ says Mike Huckabee…

“‘The concern [is] that the board will spy on Americans,’ says the Wall Street Journal in an editorial… and tells ‘the masses what is true and what is false’…

“These are worthy goals. But that doesn’t mean we should give the job to a federal government that has lied to the American people about everything… The horrible name alone is reason enough to ‘pull the plug’ on the Disinformation Governance Board ‘and never speak of it again,’ says… the Washington Post. Calling it ‘Orwellian is an insult to George Orwell,’ who understood the importance and power of language…”

Another Step Toward US Dictatorship

Fox News wrote on May 5:

“Rand Paul challenged Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over his department’s newly-announced Disinformation Governance Board, asserting that the American people do not need the federal government to tell them what the truth is. Paul specifically pointed to claims that he has made about the COVID-19 pandemic that have not been in line with administration policies. ‘I’ve said a million times that cloth masks don’t work. YouTube takes me down. They’re a private company I can have that beef with him. What about you? You’re going to look at that? I often say that natural immunity from having had the infection is equal to the vaccine or better. You’re going to take that down?… Are you going to put information out there saying that I’m spreading disinformation?’ Paul asked. ‘Mayorkas stated that his agency’s staff ‘are not the public’s health experts to make those determinations.’ ‘So public health won’t be part of the Disinformation Governance Board? No COVID disinformation? Yes or no?’ Paul pressed.

“Mayorkas would not answer, claiming that Paul was giving him ‘vague’ hypothetical situations. Paul claimed that his examples were ‘very specific.’ [Paul said:] ‘… you don’t have the perspective of history knowing that disinformation, the largest progenitor of disinformation in our history, has probably been the U.S. government.’ That last comment was in line with what Paul said earlier, about the U.S. government having a history of spreading disinformation. ‘Do you know who the greatest propagator of disinformation in the history of the world is? The U.S. government,’ Paul said. ‘Are you familiar with McNamara? The Pentagon Papers? Are you familiar with George W. Bush and the weapons of mass destruction? Are you familiar with Iran-contra?… I want you to have nothing to do with speech… Do you think the American people are so stupid they need you to tell them what the truth is? You can’t even admit what the truth is with the Steele dossier. I don’t trust government to figure out what the truth is. Government is largely disseminating disinformation.’”

Paul has a valid point. When governments try to suppress opinion and “define” the truth as they want to propagate it, then they have become dictatorships.

Companies “Look After” Their Employees to Guarantee Their “Right” to Kill

Breitbart wrote on May 4:

“Since conservative-leaning states began flexing their legislative muscles to outlaw abortion within their borders or severely limit its practice, companies from the likes of Amazon to Yelp have been drafting policies that will pay for employees’ abortions should they live in a state that outlaws the practice…

“Amazon became the latest corporation to cover employees’ travel costs to seek abortion care. The company told staff it would pay up to $4,000 in travel expenses annually for medical treatments including abortions…

“Amazon joined Citigroup, Yelp, Uber, Lyft, Bumble, Match Group, and Salesforce to draft such a policy. On Tuesday, Levi Strauss & Co. reminded its employees that its current benefits program will grant reimbursements ‘for healthcare-related travel expenses for services not available in their home state, including those related to reproductive health care and abortion.’…”

And so, the murder of innocent unborn children continues…

Come to Canada to Murder Innocent Lives!

Huffington Post wrote on May 5:

“A Canadian official said Wednesday that Americans will be able to obtain abortions in Canada should the Supreme Court overturn the landmark abortion rights decision, Roe v. Wade… Abortion is legal in Canada at any point in pregnancy. …

“Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that the ‘right to choose is a woman’s right and a woman’s right alone.’ ‘Every woman in Canada has a right to a safe and legal abortion. We’ll never back down from protecting and promoting women’s rights in Canada and around the world,’ he said.”

Nothing else could be expected from left-wing radical autocrat Trudeau. To him, the right of an unborn child to LIVE does not seem to matter.

Some Tough Questions for Joe Biden

The American Thinker wrote on May 6:

“Why are you leaving the southern border wide open with no troops, no army, and no border security?… Why are you intentionally enacting policies that hike up the price of gasoline?  Why do you pursue policies that drive up the price of food?  Why do you push an agenda that drives up the inflation rate to a 40-year high?… Why promote policies that have made the price of homes unaffordable for many families, and made it so that rental properties are out of reach for many couples?  Why have you brought us to a place where there is a shortage of fertilizer for farmers, and thus the yield on crops will be smaller, and there will be even less food for American families?

“Why are citizens who acted within their legal rights during the J6 rally imprisoned in Washington, D.C.?  Why do they remain in American Gulags without being officially charged and without the provision of bail?  Why did you say it is illegal and an insurrection to question the outcome of the stolen 2020 election?  Why are you against voter identification to vote lawfully, but are insistent on a vaccination passport to enter a store or fly on a plane?  Why do you call your enemies white supremacists?  Why did seven states all stop the counting of votes, all at the same time, on election night?…

“Why would your government lie about where the COVID-19 virus actually originated?  Why did you shut down schools, make the wearing of masks mandatory, require citizens to keep six feet apart, and impose an experimental vaccine upon the nation — when it was clear these ‘solutions’ did not work?… Why, during COVID, did you lock down schools and churches — but keep open liquor stores, hemp centers, and needle exchanges?  Why are you against allowing individual states, within our federal system, to decide on their own laws with respect to the pro-life issue?  Why are you in favor of more federal legislative protection for snakes, alligators, and turtles more than you are for protecting living babies inside the womb?

“Why would your Deep State create a Ministry of Truth?…

“Why did your Department of Defense leave behind $83 billion’s worth of military equipment for the terrorists in Afghanistan to keep?… Why do you think it is acceptable for public schools to groom young children?… Why did you tolerate mobs of BLM and Antifa pulling down statues of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt?…”

Of course, many more tough questions could be asked of Mr. Biden and his administration… It appears that he and his administration are being used by spiritual forces to destroy America from the inside. Note the next article.

The Mystery of Biden’s Presidency

The New York Post wrote on May 8:

“… a cottage industry of so-called journalists is… twisting truth to make the failing president [Biden] a victim, if not a hero…

“… his administration has effectively defined ‘extremist’ as anybody who disagrees with its far-left dogma, including parents objecting to school racial and sexual indoctrination… the left-wing media doesn’t have a single unkind word to say about the unprecedented leak itself… neither the White House nor congressional leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer condemned the radical leftists who published the home addresses of six conservative justices and promised to protest outside their houses. Schumer instead gave a speech [insisting] that the justices ‘have lied to the US Senate, ripped up the Constitution, and defiled both precedent and the Supreme Court’s reputation.’

“This is civil war level fiery and drew the ire of GOP colleagues, who accused him of slandering the justices and of trying to intimidate the court…

“And that remains the central mystery of the Biden presidency – how and why did that happen? How did a career moderate create perhaps the most radical administration in history? Here was an unlikely president, old and in obvious decline, who had the narrowest possible majorities in Congress at a time of intense polarization….

“Biden… started going far left, kept going and has never stopped… Each blunder underscores the mystery that hangs over this White House: Why, Joe Biden, did you sacrifice your presidency and American progress on the altar of the far left?”

Here is the mystery which most people don’t understand: Satan is the god of this world, and he influences the leaders of this world. And the Bible has prophesied thousands of years ago that in our time, due to America’s horrible sins, it will go down. Its fall is undeniable and inevitable, and it will end soon in defeat in a nuclear war.

The Terrible Curse of Inflation in the USA

cnbc wrote on May 11:

“Inflation is showing no signs of slowing down, making it harder for workers to make ends meet… Food prices are up at the fastest pace in more than 41 years… As of March, close to two-thirds, or 64%, of the U.S. population was living paycheck to paycheck…

“Consumers who are struggling to afford their day-to-day lifestyle tend to rely more on credit cards and carry higher monthly balances making them financially vulnerable… Overall, credit card balances rose year over year, reaching $841 billion in the first three months of 2022… At this rate, balances could soon reach record levels amid higher prices for gas, groceries and housing…”

The New York Post added on May 10:

“Biden isn’t fooling anyone ⁠— inflation is his fault and he has no solution to fix it.”

Biden vs. Trump and America’s Hopeless Division

Fox News reported on May 5:

“Trump on Thursday told Fox News Digital that ‘MAGA [“Make America Great Again”] is saving America,’ and slammed President Biden for being ‘divisive’… Trump’s comments are in response to Biden, who, reacting Wednesday to the leaked draft opinion signaling the Supreme Court’s intent to overturn Roe v. Wade, slammed Republicans, saying the controversy is ‘about a lot more than abortion.’

“Biden said the ‘MAGA crowd’ is ‘the most extreme political organization that’s existed in recent American history.’ Biden declared in April that the GOP [“Grand Old Party”; that is, the Republican Party] ‘ain’t your father’s Republican Party,’ saying it has shifted to a ‘MAGA party’ and warning that right-leaning politicians ‘who know better’ are ‘afraid to act correctly’ out of fear of losing a primary election.”

The Democratic Party is surely not anymore what it used to be in the not-too-distant past. This country is hopelessly divided and given to hatred, with no change in sight.  And a house divided CANNOT stand! And it won’t.

Conflict of Interest of Biden’s New Press Secretary

The New York Post wrote on May 6:

“President Biden’s trailblazing pick of his new press secretary is already being accused of creating troubling conflicts of interest because of her long-term relationship with star CNN reporter Suzanne Malveaux. Karine Jean-Pierre — who next Friday will be both the first black and first openly gay person to hold the key White House post — lives with the network’s national correspondent in Washington, DC, with their 7-year-old daughter…

“While the groundbreaking pick was widely celebrated, it also left some questioning the pair’s impartiality, especially given CNN’s recent scandals, including now-axed host Chris Cuomo’s behind-the-scenes meddling in brother New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s sex scandals. ‘This is one of many examples of the corporate media LITERALLY in bed with the government it covers,’ tweeted Alex Marlow, editor-in-chief of right-wing news outlet Breitbart.”

Current White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki is no stranger to controversy herself when it was revealed that, while still acting as Press Secretary, plans had been finalized for Psaki to join left-wing MSNBC. The conflict of interest is obvious, but does not seem to bother the White House.

Politics and More Politics… Developments in Germany and Russia Regarding Ukraine

Deutsche Welle reported on May 5:

“German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is due to travel to Kyiv.  The announcement came after weeks of friction after German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said his visit was not welcome by Kyiv.  Earlier on Thursday, the president’s office said he spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy by phone adding that both Steinmeier and Scholz have both been invited to Kyiv….‘The German president expressed his solidarity, respect, and support for the Ukrainian people’s courageous fight against the Russian aggressors,’ the spokesperson said. ‘Both presidents described the discussion as very important and very good… Irritations of the past were cleared up…’

“[Israel’s] prime minister [Bennett] accepted President Putin’s apology for Lavrov’s remarks and thanked him for clarifying his attitude toward the Jewish people and the memory of the Holocaust,” a statement from the Israeli prime minister’s office said. The Kremlin made no direct reference to the row…”

How past irritations between Germany and Ukraine were “cleared up,” and what Putin allegedly “apologized” for, if anything, remains clouded in mystery. As true politicians, all parties are trying to show a good face to a bad game. But this “friendly” relationship of propaganda will not last…

Europe Needs an Army

The American Conservative wrote on May 9:

“There is [a] solution which has until now been met with derision from all sides of the American political spectrum: American support for the creation of a European Union army… President Donald Trump reacted angrily to French President Emmanuel Macron’s mention of the idea in 2018. Conservatives and anyone who wishes for the U.S. to successfully pivot to Asia should reconsider this position.

“… The E.U. is not entitled to the lives of America’s soldiers… The E.U. has a thriving arms industry, massive population, nuclear weapons… They can take care of themselves…

“Americans died in the Second World War for two reasons: to extinguish a 20th-century Nazi threat and extinguish a 20th-century Japanese threat. They did not die to occupy Europe forever… some might claim that the E.U. is simply not ready for an army, or that leaders in the E.U. will not want to take on such a burden. But not being ready or willing is no reason for America to stay in Europe forever. Since 1945 we have defended Europe, and in return we have received mockery and scorn… it is time for Europe to learn to fend for itself. The next presidential administration should make the formation of a European Union army a top foreign-policy priority.”

And so, Europe will have a unified army soon… much sooner than many may think.

Sinn Fein’s Historic Win in Northern Ireland

 The Associated Press wrote on May 8:

“The Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein, which seeks unification with Ireland, hailed a ‘new era’ Saturday for Northern Ireland as it captured the largest number of seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly for the first time in a historic win… Sinn Fein secured 27 of the Assembly’s 90 seats. The Democratic Unionist Party, which has dominated Northern Ireland’s legislature for two decades, captured 24 seats. The victory means Sinn Fein is entitled to the post of first minister in Belfast for the first time since Northern Ireland was founded as a Protestant-majority state in 1921….

“The victory is a milestone for Sinn Fein, which has long been linked to the Irish Republican Army, a paramilitary group that used bombs and bullets to try to take Northern Ireland out of U.K. rule during decades of violence involving Irish republican militants, Protestant Loyalist paramilitaries and the U.K. army and police.

“Sinn Fein vice-president Michelle O’Neil… stressed that it was imperative for Northern Ireland’s politicians to come together next week to form an Executive — the devolved government of Northern Ireland. If none can be formed within six months, the administration will collapse, triggering a new election and more uncertainty.

“O’Neill has said, on Irish unification, there would be no constitutional change until voters decide on it. Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald indicated Friday that planning for any unity referendum could come within the next five years.”

Russian Dress Rehearsal for Victory Day on May 9:

The Associated Press wrote on May 7:

“Russia held a dress rehearsal on Saturday for the military parade to commemorate Victory Day on [Monday,] May 9, when the country marks the defeat of Nazi Germany during World War II.

“This year’s Victory Day… won’t just honor a conflict that ended 77 years ago. Many Russians will be thinking about the thousands of troops in neighboring Ukraine. Signs of support for the military have grown across the country since Feb. 24, with the letter ‘Z’ appearing on billboards and signs in the streets and subways, and on television and social media.”

“On Saturday, an RS-24 Yars intercontinental ballistic missile rolled through Red Square as part of the rehearsal in Moscow, with warplanes and helicopters flying overhead, troops marching in formation and self-propelled artillery vehicles rumbling past.”

On Instagram, the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) posted on March 3 that the “Z” symbol is an abbreviation of the phrase “for victory,” while the “V” symbol stands for “strength is in truth” and “The task will be completed.”

Putin Defends Invasion of Ukraine

The Los Angeles Times wrote on May 9:

“Putin delivered a strident speech Monday at an annual military parade in Moscow, accusing the U.S. and the West of provoking the conflict and comparing it to the Soviet Union’s fight against Nazi Germany in World War II.

“But the Russian leader stopped short of using the occasion — known as Victory Day to mark the defeat of Hitler’s forces 77 years ago — to declare an all-out war with Ukraine… Russia still refers to the invasion as a ‘special military operation,’ which does not require a full national mobilization of resources for war.”

For now?

Does America Run Short of Weapons because of the Ukraine War?

Bloomberg wrote on April 14:

“Western allies face a choice: Send more weapons to Kyiv or save their stockpiles for their own defense. America is following an ‘arsenal of democracy’ strategy in Ukraine: It has avoided direct intervention against the Russian invaders, while working with allies and partners to provide the Kyiv government with money and guns.

“…Yet as the war reaches a critical stage with… the arsenal of democracy is being depleted… it is revealing American weaknesses that could be laid bare in the next great-power fight. American stockpiles of key weapons are smaller than one might imagine, partly because of production constraints and partly because most of the Pentagon’s roughly $750 billion budget goes to manpower, health care and things other than bullets and bombs…”

The Heritage Foundation wrote on May 5:

“Supplying Ukraine with weapons… will almost certainly exacerbate the issue of an already depleted American arsenal. Due to the complexity and time required to manufacture today’s precision weapons, we must start thinking now, before a war breaks out, about whether America has enough weaponry to sustain a conflict….

“Last month President Biden released a defense budget request that does not even keep up with the rate of inflation, much less provide for any growth to meet our own needs. It’s a recipe for weakness at a time when the free world desperately needs strength.”

On May 10, Popular Mechanics published an article with the following headline:

“…the U.S. Sent So Many Missiles to Ukraine That It Depleted Its Own Stockpiles.”

Possibility of Defeat Becomes Real

The Washington Times wrote on May 3:

“New reports have now been disseminated to an increasingly concerned public that the West’s major defense contractors are unable to replenish the drained stocks of Javelin anti-tank missiles and stingers… For the West, specifically the Americans, we should be asking our leaders how we got to this place where weapons that are both essential and basic for modern warfare… are suddenly unavailable in the numbers needed to fight a modern war?…  If, as the Russians insist, we are already in another world war and the West has already almost depleted its supply of essential weapons, one must wonder how the future of America’s fighting capabilities will be negatively impacted. It doesn’t look good, that’s for sure…

“American leaders have so badly ignored industrial policy that we may yet lose a world war because we’ve gutted our manufacturing capabilities for so long that we can’t recover… and once America’s enemies realize that we can no longer threaten them because of severe limits on the availability of our arms, then the real challenge to America’s military begins … and the possibility of defeat becomes painfully real.”

Hunger Crisis Because of Ukraine War

npr wrote on April 20:

“The pains of every war ripple out beyond the borders of the conflict zone. And as the war between Russia and Ukraine drags on, the disruptions in the global food supply chain are beginning to deepen the already dire hunger crisis around the world.

“Ukraine and Russia combined export 30% of the world’s wheat, in addition to other food supplies. Now, because of the ongoing war, the price of food worldwide is skyrocketing and 38 countries are facing acute food insecurity, meaning they are just one step from famine.”

WFP wrote on May 6:

“The World Food Programme (WFP) is calling for the immediate reopening of Black Sea ports – including Odesa – so that critical food from Ukraine can reach people facing food insecurity… Today, as record numbers of people wonder what they will eat tomorrow, harvests from Ukrainian farms are failing to be shipped to the destinations where they are needed most… 44 million people around the world are marching towards starvation…

“Before the war, most of the food produced by Ukraine – enough to feed 400 million people – was exported through the country’s seven Black Sea ports. In the eight months before the conflict began, close to 51 million metric tons of grain passed through them… Global food prices have risen sharply since the onset of the crisis. This will affect local food prices and people in the most vulnerable locations, on extremely tight budgets, are particularly at risk…”

Pope Francis vs. Patriarch Kirill

Fox News wrote on May 5:

“The Russian Orthodox Church hit back at the Vatican this week after Pope Francis told an Italian newspaper that Patriarch Kirill should not ‘transform himself into Putin’s altar boy’ amid the invasion of Ukraine. ‘Pope Francis chose the wrong tone,’ the Russian Orthodox Church said in a statement on Wednesday. ‘Such statements are unlikely to contribute to the establishment of a constructive dialogue between the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches, which is especially needed at the present time.’

“The Pope recalled during an interview with the Italian Corriere della Sera newspaper that half of a 40-minute conversation he had with Patriarch Kirill in March consisted of the Russian Orthodox Church leader reading off ‘all the justifications for the war.’ Kirill, a longtime supporter of Putin, has echoed the Russian president’s justifications for the war in sermons and placed the blame on NATO. ‘Patriarch Kirill recalled that at the end of the Soviet era, Russia received an assurance that NATO would not move an inch eastwards. However, this promise was broken, even the former Soviet Baltic republics joined NATO,’ the Russian Orthodox Church said Wednesday. ‘Russia could not and cannot allow this to happen.’

“Despite their disagreements, Pope Francis also partially blamed NATO, telling the Italian newspaper this week that the ‘barking of NATO at Russia’s door’ may have forced Putin to invade… Pope Francis met with Kirill in-person in Cuba six years ago, marking the first time that a pontiff has met with the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church since the Great Schism nearly a millennium ago.”

Is Francis playing politics again, as he is known to do? Bild Online commented, the pope should stay out of politics and devote himself to prayer instead. This is of course an illusionary and unrealistic proposal. Historically, the Catholic Church has never stayed out of politics. Indeed, it is the woman riding and to an extent directing and leading the coming European beast of 10 core nations, as described in Revelation 17.

Acknowledgement and Disclaimer

These Current Events are compiled and commented on by Norbert Link. We gratefully acknowledge the many contributions of news articles from our readership. The publication of articles in this section is not to be viewed as an endorsement or approval as to contents or accuracy of the selected articles, but they are published for the purpose of pointing at worldwide developments in the light of biblical end-time prophecy and godly instruction. Our own comments are provided in italics.

Much confusion exists about the biblical covenants. In fact, there are many covenants mentioned in God’s Word. We discuss those in our free booklet, “And Lawlessness Will Abound.”  

In there, we state, first of all, what a covenant is:

“The word ‘covenant,’ as used in the Old Testament, is a translation from the Hebrew word ‘berith.’ The meaning of this term is ‘covenant, agreement or contract.’… Webster defines a ‘covenant’ as a ‘usually formal, binding agreement between two or more persons, to do or not to do something; a document containing the terms of the agreement.’” The word “berith” is also defined, by Strong’s, as a “compact.”

When the New Testament speaks of covenants, it uses the Greek word “diatheke,” which conveys the same meaning as the Hebrew word “berith.” Strong’s defines it as a contract or as a devisory will or testament. The dual meaning of the word for both a covenant and a testament is important, as explained below. We also show in our above-mentioned booklet that the new covenant is a marriage agreement between Christ and His Church. Christ will marry His Church at His return—the marriage will be consummated between Spirit beings. But it is not only a marriage agreement. We added this:

“In addition, this marriage contract with Christ is also an agreement to inherit what had been promised, through covenants, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and to their descendants. It is not only a will, or a testament that can be changed by the testator at any time before his death, but it is a legally binding, enforceable agreement. In any event, the testator, Jesus Christ, who inherited the promises from Abraham and his offspring, did already die, so His will, as promised to us by a contract, cannot be changed anymore. A will or a testament, in biblical times, was more like a mutual contract of inheritance. In fact, the Greek word for ‘covenant’ and for ‘testament’ is exactly the same, i.e., ‘diatheke.’ Both parties had to agree to the terms of the covenant of inheritance. This contract could be based on certain conditions, and the agreement could only be carried out, and the inheritance obtained, if both parties fulfilled the conditions…

“We, as spiritual Israelites, must be married in order to obtain the inheritance. The New Covenant tells us to whom we have to be married—Jesus Christ. But a marriage can only occur and last if both parties are willing to marry each other, and to remain faithful to each other. Christ has already made a marriage agreement with us—a betrothal—and He will spiritually consummate His marriage with us at His return, if we remain faithful (Revelation 19:7–9; Matthew 22:2; 25:1)… [If] we become disobedient and rebellious and begin again to practice the wrong way of life, Christ has the right to divorce us…”

When God made a covenant with man, He set forth the subject matter (the contents, conditions and promises) and offered the same to man, and man had to agree to and accept the offer. Until man accepted God’s offer, no covenant was entered into. When man subsequently broke the agreed-upon covenant, God was no longer bound by the terms, but man still had to suffer the penalty for breaking the covenant (compare for example Leviticus 26:25).

When God and man made a covenant, they entered into a very special relationship. That is why we speak many times of a covenant relationship. The marriage agreement or covenant constitutes such a relationship. The bridegroom and the bride promise to fulfill the conditions of the marriage covenant, and when the minister officiating the marriage declares them as husband and wife, before God, then a covenant has been entered into which was made between three parties—the husband, the wife and God. This covenant is supposed to last until the death of either the husband or the wife; it must not be broken; but sadly, many times it is. When one party forsakes the marriage, the other party is no longer bound, and divorce is possible. God was “married” to Old Testament Israel, but sent Israel away and divorced her due to her spiritual adultery or idolatry (Jeremiah 3:8).

When we become baptized, we enter into the conditions of the New Covenant. As we explain in our previously mentioned booklet:

“Christ clearly told us the conditions of the New Covenant, and we accepted them at the time of our baptism. As ancient Israel said, we also said, ‘Everything that the LORD has said, we will do.’ We also, of course, accepted Christ’s shed blood that forgives our sins, and we acknowledged that we had entered into a covenant with God at the time of our baptism. Does this mean, then, that the New Covenant has already been made with us at the time of our baptism? Well, yes and no.

“The New Covenant is a marriage agreement. The consummation of our marriage with Jesus Christ—the bridegroom and the Lamb—is still in the future. This is where the biblical concept of betrothal becomes important. In biblical times, the parties went through a period of ‘betrothal’ before they actually consummated the marriage. Mary was already betrothed to Joseph when she was found to be with child (Matthew 1:18). Since they had not consummated the marriage, Joseph thought that Mary was guilty of fornication. But Mary and Joseph were already called, at the time of their betrothal, husband and wife (Matthew 1:19–20, 24; compare also Deuteronomy 28:30). Betrothal was a binding agreement or contract of marriage, and it could only be severed through a divorce. With this contract, the husband had promised his wife to consummate the marriage with her, after a certain period of time.

“In the same way, we, when we became baptized, entered into a covenant with God, and into a contract of betrothal with Jesus Christ. The consummation of our marriage will occur, once Jesus Christ returns to establish His Kingdom. At that time, we will be immortal Spirit beings—born-again members of the God Family.”

When we become baptized, we enter into a life-long commitment and a life-long relationship with God, which He will not break, as long as we stay obedient. However, continued disobedience could lead to our breaking the covenant and ending our relationship with God.  So both our marriage agreement and our baptism constitute covenants establishing a relationship with God.

As we can see from the foregoing examples, we must accept the covenant conditions. When God made His covenants with Abraham and Isaac, they accepted the same. However, Jacob did not at first. When he deceived Isaac and fled, he told God at Bethel that he would tithe IF he would return safely (not before then), and he said that then (not before then), He would be his God (Genesis 28:18-21). He only entered into a covenant relationship with God and accepted God’s covenant offer, when He wrestled with Christ, signifying his repentance, dedication and perseverance.

As we said, a covenant has a certain “subject matter,” and it requires at least two parties who agree to enter into a covenant relationship. For instance, God made several covenants with Abram or Abraham, and each agreement enlarged the scope of the godly promise, being part of the particular covenant. The promises or conditions of the covenant in Genesis 15:18 were limited to a particular piece of land; the covenant in Genesis 17  involved the promise that many nations and kings would descend from Abraham, and it included the promise that the Eternal would be God for Abraham and his descendants. Another covenant with Abraham, referred to in Acts 3:25-26, included spiritual promises referring to Jesus Christ (compare also Genesis 22:16-18). As Abraham increased in faith and obedience, God increased the scope of His promises, by making additional covenants with him. It appears that He even made another covenant with Abraham, not specifically mentioned in Scripture as such, as God promised him not to be just the heir of certain lands, but of the entire world (Romans 4:13; this is also a promise included in the New Covenant for all Christians).

We state in our booklet:

“Abraham is actually called the friend of God in numerous places (James 2:23; 2 Chronicles 20:7; Isaiah 41:8). This means that Abraham agreed with God as to how to live, because two cannot walk together unless they are agreed (Amos 3:3). Abraham lived in obedience to God’s laws, and that is why God called him His friend and entered into agreements with him.”

Even though God made covenants with Abraham, and then, because of the obedience of Abraham, He made a covenant with Isaac, and another one with Jacob (Leviticus 26:42), the Bible may sometimes speak about God’s covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as the subject matter and the promises involved were the same. (The promises which God gave Abraham were the same as the promises which He gave Isaac and Jacob.) Still, God made individual covenants with Abraham and with Isaac and with Jacob, as the parties to the covenants were not identical.

We also read that God made other covenants with David and with Aaron or Levi, which had different subject matters and included different promises. The same is true for the covenant of circumcision, and the covenant which God made with the nation of Israel under Moses (commonly referred to as the “Old Covenant.”). But even there, God made several covenants with them. The first covenant which He made was broken by Israel when they made the golden calf; so God made another covenant with them. In this regard, Exodus 34:10 says this about the covenant which God made with Israel after they had built the golden calf: “Then the LORD said: ‘I AM MAKING a covenant with you’” (Exodus 34:10, NIV). This is indeed the proper translation of the tense—God is referring to a new contract that He was about to enter into with the people. The Living Bible says it in a similar fashion: “This is the contract that I AM GOING TO MAKE with you.” The New American Bible states, “‘Here then,’ said the LORD, ‘is the covenant I WILL MAKE.’”

Later, just prior to crossing over the River Jordan to enter the Promised Land, Moses addressed the younger generation. He said in Deuteronomy 29:1, “These are the words of the covenant which the LORD commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which He made with them in Horeb.”

It is important that we understand that a covenant does not constitute law, but is BASED on law. Covenants and laws are not identical. For instance, we are told in Joshua 7:11, “Israel has sinned [Sin is the transgression of the LAW, 1 John 3:4], and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them.” When it comes to the covenant which God made with the younger generation at Moab, it was made on the basis of additional laws that had been written in the Book of the Law as time had gone on—laws that had not been the basis for the covenant(s) that God made with Israel at Mount Sinai a generation earlier. These additional laws had been added later because of sin, and included sacrificial rules, rituals, and other ceremonial washings, as well as curses and penalties (Galatians 3:15-19).

Some have claimed that the Old Covenant was identical to the Ten Commandments, and when the Old Covenant with its rituals became obsolete due to the death of Christ, the Ten Commandments vanished as well, and Christ brought a “new law” with just eight or nine of the Ten Commandments, while omitting the Sabbath commandment and the commandment against idolatry. This is nonsense. [Please read our booklet, “The Ten Commandments,” which addresses this false teaching in detail.] God’s covenants were all, in one way or another, based on the Ten Commandments which existed before God made ANY covenant with men. And insomuch as the covenants under Moses with the nation of Israel did not bring the Ten Commandments into existence, they did not do away with the Ten Commandments, when certain covenants became obsolete.

This becomes also clear when realizing that God made a separate covenant with the nation of Israel which is described in Exodus 31. We state the following in our booklet:

“The subject matter of this covenant was the Sabbath, but this covenant did not bring the Sabbath into existence. This covenant was made long after the Ten Commandments had been announced, and, as we saw earlier, the Sabbath commandment was already in existence since the time of the creation of man. So, we see again that a covenant is not identical with the law, although it is based on law.

“We read in Exodus 31:16, ‘Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.’ In addition, the Sabbath law was now designated as a sign between God and Israel. Verses 13 and 17 tell us, ‘Surely My Sabbaths (this word is in the plural and refers to both weekly and annual Sabbaths or Holy Days) you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you… It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever…’

“By observing and being mindful of this sign, Israel would understand that it is God who sanctifies them, and Israel as a nation would become a sign to the other nations of this world, as the keeping of God’s Sabbaths does single one out. This separate Sabbath covenant between God and His people was never abolished—neither were the laws of God commanding us to keep His weekly and annual Sabbaths holy. And, since Christians are to be spiritual Jews (Romans 2:28–29; Galatians 6:16; Revelation 2:9; 3:9), they have a two-fold obligation to keep God’s Sabbaths—first, because God commands us to do so; and second, because they are under a specific covenant or agreement that God made with both physical and spiritual Israel, for all generations.”

In addition, the New Covenant is also based on the Ten Commandments, but not on laws that God has decreed are no longer valid. The New Covenant is not based, for example, on the sacrificial system, the Levitical priesthood, and other rituals and washings. But it is important that we understand why those particular laws are no longer valid. Not, because the “Old Covenant” was abolished, and with it all Old Testament laws. The concept that the “Old Covenant” ended, and with it all the laws of the Old Testament, is WRONG, as a covenant is not identical with the law, but it is BASED on the law. The Old Covenant ended, because it was based on laws which ended. We say this in our booklet:

“When analyzing the covenants that God made with the ancient nation of Israel at Mount Sinai and in Moab, God did away with those covenants [except for the Sabbaths covenant with Israel, which remains in force and effect], as too many laws on which those covenants had been based, had become obsolete. Also, God wanted to make a new covenant that would include additional promises that were never a part of the previous covenants with the nation of Israel. So, God abolished the previous covenants with the nation of Israel because certain laws on which the covenants were based were changed or abolished.”

(To Be Continued)

Lead Writer: Norbert Link

compiled by Dave Harris

“(When) Is Abortion Murder in the Eyes of God?” is the title of a new StandingWatch program, presented by Evangelist Norbert Link. Here is a summary: 

A leaked draft of US Supreme Court Judge Samuel Alito, stating that the majority opinion from the court would overturn Roe v. Wade, which legalized the right to abortion across the country, has been met with outrage and condemnation. Practicing Catholic politicians like Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi or Chuck Schumer strongly opposed the proposed Court decision, saying that the woman’s right to choose must be upheld. But what about the right of the unborn child and of the father? What is GOD’s viewpoint? Is abortion wrong? And if wrong, is it only sometimes wrong, or is it always wrong and a sin and a crime in God’s eyes? 

Pentecost will be observed on Sunday, June 5, 2022. We will broadcast a live service at 12:30 pm, PST.

A new Member Letter (May 2022) has been written and posted. This letter reports on our recent Church Conference and will be sent to those who are on our mailing list.

“Niemals die Hoffnung aufgeben!” is the title of this Sabbath’s new German sermon, presented by Norbert Link. Title in English: “Never Forsake Hope!”

“Die Zehn Gebote,” is the title of a new German translation of our booklet, “The Ten Commandments.” This booklet is in the final stages of preparation for printing and has been sent to graphic artist, Shelly Bruno.

“Haben wir eine unsterbliche Seele?” is the title of a new German translation of our booklet, “Do We Have an Immortal Soul?” It has entered the final review cycle of our German Editorial Team. 

“Es werden sich alle Knie beugen,” the sermonette presented last Sabbath in Germany by Mike Richter, is now posted. Title in English: “All Knees Will Bow.”

“Two Mountains—Only One Choice,” the first split sermon presented last Sabbath by Frank Bruno, is now posted. Here is a summary:

When we do not trust in God and His promise for us, we fail to obey Him. The Israelites were brought to the edge of the promised land, yet still failed to trust in God—despite ample examples of God’s love and mercy for His chosen ones. Unbelief can be our undoing and lead us into sin. This Split Sermon will cover scriptures that bring to light the choice God places in front of us, and how we can grow stronger in our faith.

“A Broken Spirit,” the second split sermon presented last Sabbath by Eric Rank, is now posted. Here is a summary:

The Bible tells us that a broken spirit is a sacrifice to God. On the face of it, a broken spirit sounds like something that is a source of discouragement. This might seem contradictory to the faithful, positive attitude that Christians are also instructed to develop. What does it actually mean to have a broken spirit?

On May 7, 2022, Frank Bruno will present a spit-sermon, titled, “Two Mountains—Only One Choice,” and Eric Rank will present a split-sermon, titled, “A Broken Spirit.”

The live services are available, over video and audio, at http://eternalgod.org/live-services/ (12:30 pm Pacific Time; 1:30 pm Mountain Time; 2:30 pm Central Time; 3:30 pm Eastern Time; 8:30 pm Greenwich Mean Time; 9:30 pm Central European Time). Just click on Connect to Live Stream.

The war in Ukraine, along with so many other conflicts, is revealing horrible and inhumane things. News reports are prefaced with a warning that “what we are about to see may be disturbing!”

How easily, it seems, people are driven to invade and mercilessly kill those from another nation. Human compassion appears to have been lost. However, incredible kindness has surfaced even in the mindless destruction occurring in Ukraine, and that is in the way other nations, notably, Poland—along with Romania, Moldova, Hungary, Slovakia and Germany—have taken in Ukrainian refugees numbering into multiple millions of displaced persons!

The practice of kindness appears to be the exception, though. Watching the daily news in the so-called democratic nations has become nearly unbearable, because what we see displayed are oftentimes terrible examples of vicious brutality. Only occasionally do we see a story in which tenderness, compassion or love of our fellow man is featured.

All of this should bring us to a bit of self-examination. Are we, as Christians, shining “as lights in the world” (Philippians 2:15)? One way in which we can do that is to practice kindness when it falls to us to do so.

Kindness within our families (including our church family) is so absolutely foundational in this regard.

Husbands are told to “love [their] wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her” (Ephesians 5:25). Wives are told to “submit to [their] own husbands, as is fitting in the Lord” (Colossians 3:18). Children are told to “obey [their] parents in the Lord, for this is right” (Ephesians 6:1). Brethren are told to “be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another” (Romans 12:10).

How is our family life? Are husbands kind to their wives and children? Are wives kind to their husbands and children? Are children kind to their parents? Do we treat our brethren with kindness?

Finally, consider the practice of kindness as it is presented in the following context:

“Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection” (Colossians 3:12-14).

We begin with the leak of a draft majority opinion of the US Supreme Court, overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision which had legalized abortion across the country.

We continue with controversial comments by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, stating, among other things, that Hitler had “Jewish blood,” causing strong condemnation from Israel which had been very careful, up to this point, not to upset Russia. Please view in this regard our new StandingWatch program, titled, “Did Hitler Have Jewish Blood?”

We also report on Hamas’ threats against Israel and Iran’s international terrorist activities.

We report on Putin’s alleged forthcoming operation and threats from Russia to destroy major cities in Europe, including London, Berlin and Paris, through the use of nuclear weapons and a “radioactive tsunami.”

We continue with the growing dissatisfaction and criticism against Germany’s chancellor Olaf Scholz—and the entire German elite—claiming, among many charges, that Scholz is acting due to pressure and not because of conviction, and asking whether Germany has a true leader. In this regard, please view our recent StandingWatch program, titled, “Weak German Government under Attack” . We also report on another “change of heart” by Germany regarding an embargo on Russian oil imports, while Hungary, Slovakia and other European nations are strongly opposed to such action.

We speak on Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Ukraine, while Joe Biden is being told not to visit, apparently because of his many unpredictable and embarrassing blunders. We also speak on Putin’s allies around the world, who, to a large extent, will ultimately be part of the prophesied “kings of the East.”

We conclude with further evidence of the godlessness of Canada and the terrible American school system.

Leaked Draft—Roe v. Wade to be Overturned?

Deutsche Welle wrote on May 5:

“Protesters gathered outside the US Supreme Court late on Monday after news outlet Politico released what it said was a draft majority opinion from the court overturning the landmark abortion judgment known as Roe v. Wade. Written by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, the initial draft [which was drafted in February of 2022, without any information as to whether the initial draft was subsequently revised] is his opinion and what he believes reflects the opinion of at least four other conservative members of the top court. It does not reflect comments or reactions from other members of the nine-member court. It is also not the final decision, since the Supreme Court has not ruled on the case yet, and judges can also change their final vote.

“In the reported draft opinion, Alito said he believes that ‘Roe was egregiously wrong from the start… It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives,’ the opinion reportedly adds.

“Roe v. Wade is the landmark US Supreme Court judgment of 1973 that legalized the right to abortion across the country. It was once again upheld in a 1992 ruling, which said states could not place an ‘undue burden’ on women seeking abortions before a fetus could survive outside the womb, at around 24 week…

“It is typical court procedure for a member of the court to write a draft of the court’s opinion after holding a preliminary vote on a case privately, but it is exceptional for the draft opinion to be leaked to the public as a case remains pending before it…. The Supreme Court is expected to rule on the case in June…”

Fox News added on May 4:

“Chief Justice John Roberts confirmed that Alito’s draft opinion… was genuine – although the draft dates back to February, and it does not represent the current or final opinion of the court.”

If Roe v. Wade is overturned, then each state is allowed to decide whether to allow, restrict or ban abortions within its own borders. It is estimated that 26 states would be certain or likely to restrict abortion procedures. In some cases, prosecutions could be brought against anyone aiding in obtaining an abortion. Practicing Catholic politicians like Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi or Chuck Schumer strongly opposed the proposed decision, saying that the woman’s right to choose must be upheld and that the decision would be “one of the worst and most damaging decisions in modern history,” even though the Catholic Church prohibits most cases of abortion, focusing thereby on the killing of an innocent unborn child. Many conservatives surmise that the leak occurred to sway the court’s decision by a left-liberal outcry. The leak has been described as an “original sin for judicial ethics,” and “one of the greatest breaches of security in the history of the Court.”

Israel Upset Over Lavrov’s Comments About Hitler

Times of Israel wrote on May 2:

“Israeli leaders on Monday demanded an apology and denounced Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for saying Nazi leader Adolf Hitler ‘had Jewish blood’ and that Jews are among the worst antisemites. Lavrov made the remarks during an interview with Italian television, in which he claimed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Jewishness did not undercut Russia’s claims that its invasion of Ukraine was meant to ‘denazify’ the country.

“‘The aim of such lies is to blame the Jews themselves for the most terrible crimes in history that were committed against them, thus freeing from responsibility the oppressors of Israel,’ Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said in a statement from his office.

“Bennett’s denunciation followed stronger condemnation from Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and other Israeli ministers. ‘This is an unforgivable and scandalous comment, a terrible historical error and we expect an apology,’ Lapid said. ‘Hitler was not of Jewish origin and the Jews did not murder themselves in the Holocaust. The lowest form of racism against Jews is blaming the Jews themselves for antisemitism.’ Added Lapid: ‘We are making every effort to maintain good relations with Russia, but there is a line, and this time the line has been crossed. The Russian government  must apologize to us and to the Jewish people.’”

Breitbart added on May 2:

“Despite Israel’s ambivalent stance regarding the Russia-Ukraine war – the result of being a rare ally of both countries — its language has taken a stronger tone in recent weeks…”

Axios wrote on May 2:

“It’s the first time Israel has publicly condemned the Russian claim that Zelensky is a ‘Nazi.’… The condemnation is the latest example of how Israeli policy toward the Russian invasion of Ukraine has slowly shifted, with the Israeli government voicing more criticism of Russian action and showing more willingness to give aid to Ukraine. While Israel condemned the Russian invasion and recently accused Russia of committing war crimes, it has for many weeks taken a careful approach to the Ukraine crisis to ensure military cooperation with Russia in Syria continues.”

The “good” relationship between Russia and Israel will end.

The Daily Mail wrote on May 3:

“Russia has doubled down and accused Israel of supporting neo-Nazis in Ukraine in a bitter row sparked by Sergei Lavrov’s comments that Adolf Hitler had ‘Jewish blood’….  in a statement today, the Russian foreign ministry said Lapid’s comments were ‘anti-historical’ and ‘explaining to a large extent why the current Israeli government supports the neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv’… Moscow reiterated Lavrov’s point that Zelensky’s Jewish origins did not preclude Ukraine from being run by neo-Nazis.”

Hamas Threatens Israel

Times of Israel wrote on May 2:

“In a speech Saturday night filled with murderous threats and denunciations of Israel, Hamas’s Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar said the terror group ‘will not hesitate to take any steps’ if Israel ‘violates’ the Al-Aqsa Mosque… ‘Violating Al-Aqsa and Jerusalem means a regional, religious war,’ he said…

“Sinwar praised the recent terror wave against Israelis that has left 15 dead; encouraged Palestinians in the West Bank and Arab Israelis to commit more attacks; hailed a ‘global shift’ in favor of the Palestinian cause; and urged the Islamist Ra’am party to withdraw from Israel’s governing coalition… Ra’am suspended its membership in the coalition after the recent clashes between Palestinians and police at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Although tensions have not escalated further, Ra’am has yet to officially rejoin the government…

“Sinwar further accused Israel of seeking to partition the Temple Mount as a ‘first step’ to ‘destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque and build a temple’ in its place… ‘Al-Aqsa is indeed in danger,’ Sinwar said…

“As for Arabs living in Israel, he urged them, too, to kill Israelis: ‘Our people living inside the occupier state — in the Negev, in the [northern] Triangle, in Haifa, in Acre, in Jaffa and in Lod — everybody who has a gun should take it, and those who don’t have a gun should take a butcher’s knife or any knife he can get,’ he said…”

Iran’s International Terrorist Activities

The Jerusalem Post wrote on April 30:

“[Israel’s] Mossad – operating in Iran – apprehended and interrogated an Iranian national who was leading a plot to kill an Israeli diplomat and a US general, sources have confirmed. An audio recording released on Saturday showed a photo of Mansour Rasouli admitting he had been ordered to establish a cell to assassinate a worker at the Israeli Consulate in Istanbul, a US general stationed in Germany and a journalist in France…

“The Quds Force, the IRGC branch responsible for overseas operations, planned to carry out the assassinations via drug cartels, with the Islamic Republic reportedly willing to pay over $1 million for the targets. The planned hits were organized by a member of Quds Force’s Unit 840 stationed in Europe, who was paid $150,000 to ‘prepare for the assassinations’ by using his connections to various European drug lords.

“Unit 840 is a relatively secretive operational unit that organizes terrorist infrastructure outside Iran against Western targets and opposition groups… Defense officials said the failed assassinations join a long list of similar plots, including recent ones in Kenya and Colombia. Turkish, British and American reports over the last few years have accused Iran of using major international crime organizations to help advance its goals abroad, which include carrying out terrorist plots.”

Putin to Be Operated and His Powers Transferred?

The Sun wrote on April 30:

“[Putin] has been source of considerable speculation amid reports that he is battling both abdominal cancer and Parkinson’s Disease. But now it has been reported that 69-year-old Putin could soon vanish as he goes under the knife, with power transferred to Nikolai Patrushev.

“Shadowy Patrushev, 70, is seen as a key architect of the Ukraine war strategy and the man who convinced Putin that Kyiv was awash with neo-Nazis.  The claim was reported on Russian media outlet General SVR, which first raised issues of Putin’s health around 18-months ago…

“When exactly Putin will go into hospital is unclear but it is unlikely to [be] before May 9, when he presides over the grandiose Red Victory Day commemoration of the defeat of Hitler…

“An all-out war [against Ukraine] would allow Moscow to draft in more conscripts, impose martial law and also bid for support from its international allies – such as Belarus.”

Destroying Europe?

The Sun wrote on May 2:

“RUSSIAN state TV has threatened to drown the UK under a radioactive tsunami in a bizarre new propaganda video. In the chilling broadcast the presenter also showed how the Kremlin’s latest world-ending Satan 2 nuclear missile could also annihilate Britain. The warning comes as the Kremlin raised the prospect of devastating military strikes on Britain over its deal to supply weapons to Ukraine… host Dmitry Kiselyov heralded Russia’s second option to ‘plunge Britain into the depths of the sea’ with its ‘underwater robotic drone Poseidon.’ In a chilling graphic he warned the missile would raise a giant tsunami wave up to 1,640ft high…

“Putin himself last week darkly warned of using nuclear weapons against the UK and its European allies as devastating nuke maps were broadcast across Russian TV. It gleefully warned Berlin can be nuked in 106 seconds, Paris in 200 seconds and London in 202 seconds. The Sarmat hypersonic 208-ton ’Satan-2’ intercontinental ballistic missile has a speed of 15,880mph and is claimed by the Kremlin leader to be ‘unstoppable’…

“Sergei Lavrov said the risk of World War 3 is now ‘considerable’ – saying the West is essentially fighting a proxy war against Moscow via its support for Kyiv…

The Mirror added April 30:

“Russian state TV simulated a terrifying nuclear strike on Europe, declaring there would be ‘no survivors’… The terrifying claims… were made on the popular TV show which is one of the country’s most watched.”

This will not happen now, but nuclear war, involving Russia and Europe, WILL happen in the future.

Criticism Against Scholz

The Daily Mail wrote on April 29:

“After two months of prevarication and excuses, the German government at last agreed this week to send some heavy armour to Ukraine… Better late than never, you might think. Except that the 50 Gepard (German for cheetah) anti-aircraft vehicles it has approved first saw service in the 1960s and, despite several upgrades, haven’t been part of the German army’s arsenal for over a decade… Military experts say it’s a complicated weapon that requires months of training (five months, for example, when the Romanian army acquired it), a constant stream of spare parts — and ammunition from Switzerland, which the Swiss have not yet agreed to send.

“No wonder Ukrainians feel Germany’s heart is not quite in its efforts to arm them with the weapons it desperately and quickly needs.

“Yet it’s only just over two months since Scholz made an historic speech to the German parliament which was hailed at the time as a watershed. In an address which lasted just under an hour, as Russian armour and troops poured across the border in an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, the recently elected chancellor laid waste to Germany’s long-standing policy of cosying up to the Kremlin. He promised billions more for defence to end the hollowing out of Germany’s military, support for sanctions against Moscow and even weapons for Ukraine. When he sat down, 16 years of Merkelism — the pro-Russian approach of his predecessor, Angela Merkel — lay in tatters.

“It was all the more remarkable coming from a chancellor whose Social Democrat party had always been in the vanguard of rapprochement with Russia — a policy known as Ostpolitik, which dates back to the early 1960s.Yet in the aftermath of this supposed watershed, Scholz was nowhere to be seen. It was almost as if he’d gone into hiding…

“Sympathetic commentators reminded us that Scholz was in coalition with the Greens, who dabbled in pacifism, and had to accommodate the Left of his own party, which still had a soft spot for Ostpolitik despite Russian barbarities in Ukraine. But the Greens let it be known they were in favour of sending heavy weapons and the Left kept their heads down. Another pathetic excuse bit the dust…

“Die Welt, one of Germany’s most respected newspapers, calls Scholz’s failure to follow through after his watershed speech as ‘the most dangerous miscalculation in the history of the Federal Republic’. It’s a crisis for the whole German political establishment, since all of it — Left, Right and centre plus big business and trade unions — has been implicated in the sorry mess that Germany’s long-standing complicity with the Kremlin has become.

“As perhaps Germany’s most egregious Putin puppet, former chancellor Gerhard Schroder, recently confessed: ‘We were all at it for 30 years.’ As chairman of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, and board director of oil giant Rosneft, he has been filling his boots with Russian energy company treasure for years — and still is.

“The German establishment has been more vociferously critical of Brexit Britain than of Putin’s Russia. Now it’s paying the price for its Kremlin complicity. Schroder’s great mate, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, is Germany’s head of state. His ties with Moscow are so extensive that Kyiv has declared him persona non grata. Ukraine’s ambassador to Berlin refuses to be in the same room as him.

“The contrast between Germany’s political leaders and the female leaders who have been dubbed the Five Warrior Women of the North could not be starker — or more refreshing. Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia and Lithuania are all led by smart, feisty women who’ve been fiercely critical of Putin from even before the invasion and robustly supportive of Ukraine since…

“The decision to become increasingly reliant on Russian hydrocarbons was entirely of Germany’s own making. It was not forced to go down this route. Important voices at home and abroad warned Germany not to do it. They were ignored. It was a terrible mistake with huge geopolitical consequences that are now tragically unfolding for all to see…”

Germany has messed it up big time for many years.

Deutsche Welle wrote on April 30:

“When it comes to the war in Ukraine, Chancellor Olaf Scholz has insisted that Germany is ‘doing everything’ possible. And yet the gap between his words and actions suggests otherwise… Earlier this week, I blinked, and something that Olaf Scholz had spent weeks insisting was impossible suddenly became possible. Germany will start delivering anti-aircraft tanks to Ukraine. Like so much of German policy on the war in Ukraine, including the initial decision back in late February to send any weapons at all, the announcement came out of the blue: Just hours before, leading members of Scholz’s Social Democratic Party had given interviews saying sending heavy weapons was out of the question. Apparently, they didn’t get the memo — or Scholz left them in the dark, as he reportedly did to some of his ministers when he proposed a major budget hike for the Bundeswehr (Germany’s armed forces) in the days following the Russian invasion.

“In the leadup to the war and ever since, Germany’s default position has been we can’t: We can’t send weapons to a conflict zone, we can’t block Russia from SWIFT, (international payment system), we can’t embargo Russian energy, we can’t send heavy weapons — the list goes on… the fact that so many ‘can’t do’s’ have turned into ‘can do’s’ reveals a discrepancy between the chancellor’s rhetoric and Germany’s feet-dragging actions… Scholz seems to be acting out of pressure rather than conviction… The spontaneous U-turns, where the impossible becomes possible overnight, suggests that ‘can’t’ may really be ‘don’t want to’ in disguise.

“… at the moment, Germans don’t seem keen on making sacrifices. A poll released Thursday showed that only every other German was willing to give things up in daily life to help Ukraine. But public support can shift… Germany has the tools to do much, much more. The question is does it have the leader.”

Of course, the answer is obvious. None right now. But it will change in due time.

The Guardian wrote on May 1:

 “The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has defended himself against accusations that his approach to Russian aggression has been hesitant and timid, insisting his decisions followed close consultation with Germany’s allies and sought to avoid any suspicion that the country was ‘going it alone’. Scholz has faced fierce criticism even from within his own government and last week came under particular fire from the opposition leader, Friedrich Merz, who accused him of weak leadership and of ‘procrastination, dithering and timidity’…

“Scholz appeared to bow to immense domestic and international pressure last week by announcing that Germany would deliver heavy weaponry to Ukraine, in the form of self-propelled anti-aircraft systems, in what was seen as a sharp policy U-turn. But while the outspoken Ukrainian ambassador to Berlin, Andriy Melnyk, said he welcomed the move, he piled further pressure on Scholz on Sunday by insisting it did not go nearly far enough, and demanding more ‘fantasy and courage’ from Germany… Melnyk… said that the Gepard anti-aircraft guns promised last week were insufficient and too old…

“As debate raged among policymakers in Germany as to when and whether Germany can become independent from Russian gas supplies, the news agency DPA reported that the government was planning to support EU plans for a Russian oil embargo, as part of a sixth round of sanctions about to be announced by the bloc, despite opposition from Hungary, Austria, Slovakia, Spain, Italy and Greece….”

Hungary Opposed to Ban of Russian Oil and Gas

Express wrote on May 2:

“Senior officials in Hungary have warned that Budapest is prepared to block any attempts in the European Union to impose sanctions on Russia’s oil industry… Hungary has warned that if these measures would hinder Budapest’s ability to import energy, the country would be ready to veto it… Hungarian Cabinet Minister Gergely Gulyas told HirTV on Sunday: ‘Since such decisions require unanimity, it makes no sense for the commission to propose sanctions affecting natural gas and crude oil that would restrict Hungarian procurements. ‘We’ve made it clear that we’ll never support.’…

“ An official told Reuters that in order to keep the 27-nation bloc united, the EU Commission might offer Slovakia and Hungary ‘an exemption or a long transition period’… German Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck warned that there was still no unity among the EU member states on whether to ban Russian oil and gas.”

Germany Suddenly for Oil Embargo?

Deutsche Welle wrote on May 2:

“German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has said Berlin was ready to support a gradual, EU-wide embargo on Russian oil imports… [Economy and Climate Minister Robert] Habeck admitted that higher prices in Germany were there for the long run, as the state could not cushion all energy price increases… But he said that for a number of firms, the consequences of higher energy costs would not kick in until 2023, as many companies had long-term contracts on fixed terms…

“Habeck said that most of the current energy supplies arriving from Russia go to the Schwedt refinery near Berlin… responding to Habeck’s comments, the city of Schwedt issued a statement calling into question his assurances that an embargo was ‘feasible,’ and accusing the government of ‘dictating terms from afar’ for the city’s main business.”

Breitbart added on May 2:

“Germany’s central bank has warned that should the country entirely cut off Russian energy it could severely increase inflation and damage economic growth, warning that the economic powerhouse of the European Union could experience a two per cent decline in GDP this year. However, despite the move to cut off Russian oil, the government has not made any commitments to cutting off liquid natural gas from Moscow…

“At present, the European Union pays Russia some €780 million ($850/£680 million) per day in exchange for oil and natural gas. Since the invasion of Ukraine began in February, the bloc has sent over €44 billion to Russia, accounting for 71 per cent of Russian energy exports. Germany, the largest single nation buyer [of] Russian gas and oil in the EU, has sent more than €9 billion since the start of the invasion.”

Pelosi in Ukraine

Axios wrote on May 1:

“House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Sunday led a congressional delegation to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv…

“For the time being, the White House has ruled out sending President Biden, citing security concerns.”

The real reason might very well be that Democrats are concerned about what Biden might say or do during a visit to Ukraine. Note the next article.

Biden’s Embarrassing Blunders

The New York Post wrote on April 29:

“Gaffe-prone President Biden has raised concerns after his latest embarrassing blunder, which saw him repeatedly stumble over the word ‘kleptocracy’ during a Thursday speech asking the US Congress for an additional $33 billion Ukraine aid package… Biden, 79, was talking about his administration’s plans to seize Russian assets when he ran into some linguistic trouble. ‘We’re going to seize their yachts, their luxury homes, and other ill-begotten gains of Putin’s kleptoc- — yeah — kleptocracy and klep- — the guys who are the kleptocracies,’ Biden told reporters with a self-deprecating chuckle…

“Moments earlier, Biden also mistakenly said [twice] that the US will ‘accommodate’ the Russian oligarchs ‘and make sure we take their — take their ill-begotten gains.’”

Putin’s Allies

Express wrote on May 2:

“Putin and his regime is becoming increasingly desperate in Ukraine, where it has struggled to make gains beyond the country’s outskirts while facing international condemnation. Some world leaders have supported the invading regime, breaking from the global consensus… He isn’t without support, as he has scattered allegiances around the world. Most of them come from Eastern Europe, but some surprising officials have warmly welcomed members of the Russian regime in the last few months.

“Chief among them is Alexander Lukashenko, the controversial premier of Belarus, known as the ‘last dictator in Europe’… Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has also supported the Russian regime… Vucic has boasted about his political ties with his Russian counterpart. He has refused to condemn Russia and participate in the EU’s sanctions regime, despite having applied for membership, undermining the bloc’s work to discourage attacks on Ukraine…

“Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban attained another term this year. Almost immediately after winning his election in April, Orban dropped his attempts to distance himself from his historical backing of Putin and criticised Volodymyr Zelensky. He called Ukraine’s leader an ‘opponent’ of Hungary, and the Kremlin said that Putin sent him a personal message of congratulations after his win…

“Further east, Putin’s regime has found support from the Indian government… India has continued to trade with Russia despite western sanctions and increased oil imports, undercutting efforts from other nations… Earlier this month, officials organised a vote to condemn Russia that 143 nations supported, including the US, UK, France and Germany. But India, Pakistan, Iran and China were among the abstainers, and the vote exposed four other supporters of Putin, whose administration voted against it… Syria, Belarus, North Korea and Eritrea all voted not to condemn the invasion. Belarus was already aiding Putin in Ukraine, while the remaining nations voiced their distaste for western interventionism.”

The Jerusalem Post wrote on April 30:

“Americans… responded negatively to the relationship between Russia and China, which has not denounced Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine… Some 62% saw the relationship as a very serious problem for the US and another 30% saw it as somewhat serious.”

It is interesting that some of the nations mentioned in the quoted articles will ultimately unite and become part of the Far Eastern military alliance, which is described in the Bible as the “kings of the East.”

Russia’s Robot Army

Express wrote on May 4:

“Russian military expert Viktor Murakhovsky warned… ‘there is a myth abroad that Russia lags behind in robotics.’ In reality, he claimed, no other army in the world possesses such a diverse range of unmanned vehicles and drones as the Russian Federation. Given recent investments by Putin’s forces in the arena of robotics, this is a situation that appears unlikely to change any time soon.

“Mr Murakhovsky said: ‘Today’s Russian army is the successor of the Red Army, which created remote-controlled tanks back in the 1930s.’ Mr Murakhovsky told Russia Beyond: ‘After the war, pilotless planes were developed in the USSR…  in terms of land and sea robots it has the most extensive program in the world.”

Collaboration Between Ukrainians and Russians

The Washington Post wrote on May 4:

“Rumors about traitors run rife as invading forces have seemed to know in advance which residents have guns and which are said to be wealthy…

“In small towns and villages across Ukraine that fell under Russian occupation in February and March and have since been liberated, the fog of war has been replaced by the fog of conspiracy and suspicion. Weeks later, citizens across the country speak in hushed tones about people who they believe sold out their neighbors and whether they might have done so willingly or under duress.”

Pope Francis Blames NATO for the War

The Daily Beast wrote on May 3:

“‘I feel that before going to Kyiv, I must go to Moscow,’ [Pope Francis] told Corriere Della Sera in an interview that ran Tuesday. But the meeting would not exactly be to condemn Putin, based on what he told the paper. He said that the real ‘scandal’ of Putin’s war is ‘NATO barking at Russia’s door,’ which he said caused the Kremlin to ‘react badly and unleash the conflict.’…

“Francis repeated comments he has made in general audiences and in other interviews that the war is nothing more than a giant opportunity for a ‘trade in arms’ and that it is still ongoing because of the constant shuttling of weapons to Ukraine…

“Francis veered toward conspiracy theory as he blamed the international community for instigating the war… ‘In Ukraine, it seems that it was others who created the conflict…’”

Ungodly Canada

The Spectator wrote on April 30:

“Since last year, Canadian law… has allowed both the rich as well as the poor to kill themselves if they are too poor to continue living with dignity… [Canada] will even pay for their deaths. What it will not do is spend money to allow them to live instead of killing themselves…

“In 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada reversed 22 years of its own jurisprudence by striking down the country’s ban on assisted suicide as unconstitutional… The next year, Parliament duly enacted legislation allowing euthanasia, but only for those who suffer from a terminal illness whose natural death was ‘reasonably foreseeable’…

“It only took five years for the proverbial slope to come into view, when the Canadian parliament enacted Bill C-7, a sweeping euthanasia law which repealed the ‘reasonably foreseeable’ requirement – and the requirement that the condition should be ‘terminal’… Even before Bill C-7 was enacted, reports of abuse were rife. A man with a neurodegenerative disease testified to Parliament that nurses and a medical ethicist at a hospital tried to coerce him into killing himself by threatening to bankrupt him with extra costs or by kicking him out of the hospital, and by withholding water from him for 20 days. Virtually every disability rights group in the country opposed the new law. To no effect…

“Since then, things have only gotten worse. A woman in Ontario was forced into euthanasia because her housing benefits did not allow her to get better housing which didn’t aggravate her crippling allergies. Another disabled woman applied to die because she ‘simply cannot afford to keep on living’. Another sought euthanasia because Covid-related debt left her unable to pay for the treatment which kept her chronic pain bearable…

“[The media] has expressed remarkably little curiosity about the open social murder of citizens in one of the world’s wealthiest countries. Perhaps, like many doctors, journalists are afraid of being accused of being ‘unprogressive’ for questioning the new culture of death…

“Next year, the floodgates will open even further when those suffering from mental illness … become eligible for assisted suicide, although enthusiastic doctors and nurses have already pre-emptied the law. There is already talk of allowing ‘mature minors’ access to euthanasia too…”

This is terrible. But those responsible will be held accountable by God.

Schools Must Stop Indoctrinating Our Children

Dr. Ron Paul of the Ron Paul Institute wrote on May 2:

“A Florida bill restricting classroom instruction regarding sexuality in kindergarten through third grade has become the latest culture war skirmish. Supporters of the bill say government schools have no business being involved in this type of instruction with young students. They make a good point. The use of government power to indoctrinate children in certain political and social beliefs — regardless of the wishes of parents — is a major problem.

“While the instruction at issue in Florida is associated with efforts of leftists, the temptation to seek to achieve ideological objectives through education policy can be strong among conservatives as well… [Some] conservatives are trying to force schools to adopt a ‘patriotic’ curriculum. This is just as pernicious as leftists’ efforts to force schools to teach critical race theory. Students indoctrinated in critical race theory will graduate believing that white male capitalists are the source of all evil. Students indoctrinated in ‘patriotism’ will graduate believing every bit of propaganda sponsored by the war party and will smear all dissenters from the ‘party line’ as unpatriotic…

“In a free society, parents — not politicians, bureaucrats, or teachers unions — would control education. Parents would decide whether and when their children’s education will include topics like sexuality, race theory, and the evidence for and against Darwinism.”

The school system in the USA is awful.

Acknowledgement and Disclaimer

These Current Events are compiled and commented on by Norbert Link. We gratefully acknowledge the many contributions of news articles from our readership. The publication of articles in this section is not to be viewed as an endorsement or approval as to contents or accuracy of the selected articles, but they are published for the purpose of pointing at worldwide developments in the light of biblical end-time prophecy and godly instruction. Our own comments are provided in italics.

The literal act of littering is not directly and expressly addressed in the Bible, but neither are such areas as smoking, vaccinations and other matters. But there are many principles that show that we can learn from God’s Word even if a specific area cannot be found in Scripture.

 We will find out in this Q&A that littering is something that we must take seriously. There may be those who see this question and think that it is so obvious that it need not be addressed in the Church of God. But it does because we can all fall short in this area even though it may be considered a little thing.  After all, Christ said: “He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much” (Luke 16:10).  As a spin-off to littering, we will also address neatness and tidiness.

Life is made up of many small things, and we do need to take those small things seriously.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines litter as: “trash, wastepaper, or garbage lying scattered about; an untidy accumulation of objects.”

Let us bring to mind how big a problem this can be.  It was reported in July 2019 that the “Glastonbury (music) Festival has been left with a sea of litter left to be cleaned up – just hours after Sir David Attenborough appeared on the Pyramid stage to praise the festival’s anti-plastic campaign. But some were left asking about Glastonbury’s ‘Plastic free’ mantra as photos showed the devastating mess left in the wake of the world’s most famous festival.

“Around 1,300 volunteers are taking on the gargantuan task, using bin bags from recycled plastic to hand sort debris left on the ground and across the festival site’s 15,000 bins.  The clean-up of the festival takes an estimated six-weeks to complete.”

Mr Armstrong, the late human leader of the now defunct Worldwide Church of God, used to comment on the yearly Rose Parade in Pasadena as one of the most beautiful things this world was able to offer, but also bemoaned the terrible amount of trash and litter being left behind after the event, saying that in this world, even the most beautiful things are being polluted and defiled.

There was a series of programmes on British television in 2021 about the workings of Chatsworth House showing all that goes on behind the scenes as well as the facilities that are available. The Church held the annual Feast of Tabernacles at this site for 10 years between 1999-2009 in what is a truly millennial setting.  However, one day that it was opened to the public during different lockdowns during 2020, an area was designated for use by those wishing to have a picnic.   The amount of waste left was staggering with many staff taking hours just to clean up the area.

We read on the website trashhero.org the following: “Litter is what we call trash when it ends up outside a bin or landfill.  Litter is bad for animals and people. Plastic waste suffocates, disables and kills thousands of animals each year. Litter is dirty and spoils our environment.

“Turtles, seals, birds and dolphins often mistake plastic waste for food. Plastic bags floating in the water can look like jellyfish, for example. After animals eat plastic, their intestines get blocked and their normal food can’t be digested properly. If they eat too much plastic, their stomachs always feel full, so they don’t eat anything else. Eventually they can starve to death. Plastic also contains lots of nasty chemicals that can poison animals and cause internal injuries.

“Animals often get entangled in plastic bags. This means they can suffocate, starve or drown. It also makes it easier for predators to catch them. Plastic bags constrict an animal’s movement which means they can get exhausted, or sometimes develop an infection from wounds caused by material wrapped around them. Plastic packaging can sink to the ocean floor, get wrapped around and smother coral reefs. Inland, plastic blocks drains, allowing mosquitoes to breed and spread dengue fever. Litter makes the beach look dirty. Sharp objects like broken glass can cut your feet. Because of this, there may be fewer visitors and local people will have less income from tourism.”

We should be able to see that litter is a real problem which so many seem to treat with disdain or contempt.

In an article by the Los Angeles Times, dated April 14, 2022, the following was stated:

“The Los Angeles City Council passed two motions… to address illegal dumping on the streets and in vacant lots of trash and junk like appliances, furniture, tires and other waste… ‘We live in a very trashy city,’ [Councilmember Kevin] de León said… ‘In terms of a large metropolitan city, we are the trashiest largest city in America.’ The city controller’s office reported last year that illegal dumping of trash, debris and hazardous items in public areas increased 450% between 2016 and 2020.”

Let us review a few Scriptures which reflect the Way of God.

In Genesis 2:15, right at beginning of civilization, we read: “Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.”

In bibleref.com, we read: “One of the most important lessons which jumps out from this verse is that immediately after he was created, the first man had a God-given purpose. God placed him into the paradise of the garden of Eden with a job to do. God had created a world which included work needing to be done; He created man with a mission to do that work. Logically, God didn’t need to structure the world in this way. He could have created a world that was fully self-sustaining. He could have made human beings to simply live in luxury and enjoy all of God’s creation without ever having to contribute anything. That, however, was not God’s design. Even before [human] sin entered the world, human beings were meant to work, to help to accomplish God’s purpose. That is built into us.”

We should note what the angels say to God about those who pollute and destroy the environment: “We give You thanks, O LORD God Almighty… Your wrath has come, And the time… that you… should destroy those who destroy the earth” (Revelation 11:17-18).

Likewise, today we are not to dismiss looking after our gardens, if we have one.  To keep it neat, tidy and functional is the way that we are expected to deal with this.

In Matthew 7:12, we read about how we should treat others: “Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”  Those who leave litter on someone else’s grounds would probably not appreciate others littering their own place. Therefore, we should treat other people’s property with the respect that we would ourselves expect to receive.

There is a graphic example in Mark 6:38-44 with Jesus and the loaves and fishes as we read: ^“But He said to them, ‘How many loaves do you have? Go and see.’  And when they found out they said, ‘Five, and two fish.’ Then He commanded them to make them all sit down in groups on the green grass.   So they sat down in ranks, in hundreds and in fifties.   And when He had taken the five loaves and the two fish, He looked up to heaven, blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to His disciples to set before them; and the two fish He divided among them all.   So they all ate and were filled.   And they took up twelve baskets full of fragments and of the fish.  Now those who had eaten the loaves were about five thousand men.”

They didn’t leave all the fragments for others to clear up as would probably happen today, but they cleared up after the event. Of course, Christ made clear that He wanted the fragments to be gathered up “so that nothing is lost” (John 6:12). In addition, picking up food from the ground might not have been very hygienic.   Perhaps showing the magnitude of the miracle that 5,000 men plus women and children had been fed with five loaves and two fish was astonishing only to be compounded even further by the amount of fragments that had been left.   It also showed that littering was not the way it should be and they would have left the area in the same way that they had found it. It is a good principle not to leave a place dirtier than how we found it.

We see the aspect of service that is not in evidence when serving others is not shown.  In Galatians 5:13 we read: “For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”   Loving and serving others is not manifested by selfishly leaving a pile of litter for others to dispose of.

Looking after the interests of others is clearly shown in Philippians 2:3-4: “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better [higher] than himself.  Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.”

Do we as the people of God engage in littering of any kind?   Have we ever carelessly discarded a food wrapper or an empty drink can?  If there are no bins for depositing such rubbish, then we are obliged to take these home or to another place where they may be disposed of in the right way.  Have we ever thrown a discarded item out of our car window?

Have we ever engaged in some form of fly-tipping which is the illegal dumping of liquid or solid waste on land or in water?  The waste is usually dumped to avoid disposal costs and such a mess  that is created by such selfishness, has to be dealt with by others.

Do we always pick up after our dog once it has done its “business” on the front yard of somebody else’s property? After all, it isn’t exactly the most enjoyable chore we’ll ever engage in. It can be tempting to skip this task, but doing so may even be illegal in many places.

Part of rebellious mankind’s modus operandi is that man thinks that he can do exactly as he pleases without regard to planet Earth or any of his fellow human beings.   It is an attitude that is ugly and uncaring, and we must ensure that we don’t slip into doing the same thing, perhaps even thoughtlessly.

The above examples are a part of being neat and tidy.   Are our homes untidy, maybe even scruffy?   Of course, for some who have illness or disability problems, this can be a difficult area to keep control of.   We know that where there is dirt and litter, vermin can be attracted to such areas, and so it is vital that we eliminate any possibility of this happening in our own homes.   And home is where we spend the majority of our time, and so, why shouldn’t it be a delightful place to dwell?

A good question to ask is, are we always prepared for any visitors to enter our home or do we have to specifically prepare well in advance?   For those who are always clean, neat and tidy and keep their home that way, there is no such concern for any unexpected visit. Of course, we understand that there might be and oftentimes are valid exceptions, but we are speaking in general terms.

One website wrote about “Messy Home, Messy Life, Messy Saint” and observed: “And, your yard. What do you announce to the neighborhood about yourself if there is trash all around? Hoses wind around like green spaghetti. The flower pots still have desiccated geraniums in them that were killed last fall by freezing weather. Clean it up, and throw away the stupid stuff which you once thought you might use. And, if much of the junk is your kids’ stuff, make them help you. If your kids are too mean spirited to clean up their own trash, you are not raising them– they are raising YOU.”   Very straightforward advice but true to those who have eyes to see and ears to hear.

Let us think about heaven, God’s abode.   Of course, it is spiritual and not physical, and we really can only wonder about the spiritual realm but would the One who created the universe and everything we see, be dirty, untidy and uncaring about presentation?   We should all know the answer to that question and, as we are to be growing in grace and knowledge to become more like God, we would surely want to follow Him in all His ways.

God would surely disapprove of anyone leaving His creation in an untidy mess with trash and general litter marring the beauty that is our planet and it makes unnecessary work for others to do when we should be doing this ourselves.  Anything that reduces or inhibits the proper enjoyment and full use of our God-given environment will not be met with God’s approval. Leaving rubbish for others to clear up is selfish and unthinking.

What sort of message does it send out to the young people growing up today when their parents and family just throw rubbish anywhere they want?   And when they take little or no interest in keeping their home, clean, tidy and litter-free?

It is interesting that the Singapore project has produced amazing results showing that attacking the littering problem can be very advantageous.  We read the following in an article by the BBC::

“Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, there were campaigns that urged Singaporeans to keep toilets, factories and bus stops clean. The 1976 Use Your Hands campaign had students, parents, teachers, principals and civil servants cleaning up schools at the weekend. There were also numerous tree planting initiatives. The aim wasn’t just to make the city more pleasant. A cleaner city, Lee Kuan Yew reasoned, would create a stronger economy. ‘These standards will keep morale high, sickness rate low, and so create the necessary social conditions for higher economic growth in industry and in tourism. This will contribute to the public good, and in the end to everyone’s personal benefit,’ he said.

“On all of these counts, Singapore has done well. Life expectancy has grown from 66 to 83 (which is third best globally). In 1967, tourist arrivals were a little over 200,000 compared to a just shy of 10 million for the first three quarters of 2018. Inward foreign direct investment ballooned from US$93m in 1970 to US$39bn in 2010. It’s now the fifth largest recipient of, foreign direct investment receiving $66bn in 2017.”

Doing the right thing will always produce good results, as we see in the above example.   For anyone visiting Singapore, they will see a litter-free environment as littering is very heavily punished.  People have been “trained” not to litter and to keep things neat and tidy, and it is a joy to see this actually working, which is in great contrast to the many nations of the world who have little or no control on such matters.

There is no specific command in the Bible not to litter but if there was, it would probably be ignored by most people like all of the other Commandments of God are.  We shouldn’t litter because it is not the Way of God, nor is it helpful to man as we have seen.   Let us be the best example we can be to all people and do that which is pleasing in His sight.

If you have read this and feel that you have not been guilty or are totally on top of this matter, then congratulations to you.   Most will surely be able to identify with being slack in this area at times, and if that is so, then maybe this presentation may be just the nudge that you need!

Let us make ourselves a committee of one to ensure that we are not part of this problem and that we always set the best possible example!

Lead Writer: Brian Gale (United Kingdom)

compiled by Dave Harris

“Did Hitler Have Jewish Blood?” is the title of a new StandingWatch program, presented by Evangelist Norbert Link. Here is a summary:

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was condemned by Israel, as well as many others, for his recent comments that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler “had Jewish blood.” But where does this idea come from? And can it teach us something about the arrival of the coming beast mentioned in the book of Revelation and other prophetic biblical books?

“Hatte Hitler jüdisches Blut?” is the title of a new AufPostenStehen program, presented by Norbert Link. This program covers the same topic as described above.

“Geheimnisse offenbart! Unsere Auferstehung zum ewigen Leben,” is the title of this Sabbath’s new German sermon, presented by Norbert Link. Title in English:“Mysteries Revealed! Our Resurrection to Eternal Life.”

“Was sagt die Bibel über Krieg?”, the sermonette presented last Sabbath by Dmitrij Niemann, is now posted. Title in English: “What Does the Bible Say About War?”

We are very pleased to announce the ordination of Elder Eric Rank to the office of Pastor. This was done on the Sabbath by the ministry during our annual Church Conference. We will report on more details about the Conference in our May Member Letter.

“Impossible Without a Miracle,” the sermonette presented last Sabbath by Brian Gale, is now posted. Here is a summary:

This message contains some conjecture about the place of safety which is promised to the true church at the time of the Great Tribulation.  Scripture is clear about the event but neither the place nor the timing is known, nor are the travel arrangements!  Some speculative ideas are reviewed as to how this might happen.

“Equality with God in His Kingdom?”,the sermon presented last Sabbath by Norbert Link, is now posted. Here is a summary:

Is it our destiny to attain equality with God? Or just a certain resemblance? Is Christ equal to God or just similar to Him? What does it mean to inherit the Kingdom of God? What IS the Kingdom of God? Do we have to do something to inherit it? What is meant by “born again”? Who or what is God? IS God a Family, or does He just HAVE a Family? What is the connection between God, the God Family, and the Kingdom of God? What is the gospel of the Kingdom? And finally, what is the most important work of God on earth today?

On April 30, 2022, Brian Gale will present the sermonette, titled, “Impossible Without a Miracle?” and the sermon will be presented by Norbert Link, titled, “Equality With God in His Kingdom?”

The live services are available, over video and audio, at http://eternalgod.org/live-services/ (12:30 pm Pacific Time; 1:30 pm Mountain Time; 2:30 pm Central Time; 3:30 pm Eastern Time; 8:30 pm Greenwich Mean Time; 9:30 pm Central European Time). Just click on Connect to Live Stream.

In this era of fake and filtered news, little that we hear is genuine. Previously established facts such as the existence of only two genders now seem to be challenged. Evil is considered an attribute in the twisted manner of thinking, common with many political and business leaders. Few things we’ve known to be true or authentic are considered as such by this world–sincerity is in short supply.

Most of us have written the word “sincerely” at the end of a letter. Yet we may not have a good understanding of the meaning of the word and the sentiment that should underlie it. The dictionary states: “From the bottom of one’s heart, truthfully, genuinely.” This is straightforward, but like many things in our human existence, what we say may not always match our actions. I write about such matters not from a position of superiority, but of regret. I know, I have not always lived up to this word and God’s requirements for me. Fortunately, God has provided a way to correct and improve.

The word “sincerely” has an interesting foundation. The Latin root is “sine,” which means, “without,” and “cera,” which means, “wax”— so sincerely means, “without wax.”

Disreputable sculptors in the ancient world would cover flaws in their work by using wax. If the sculpture was chipped, cracked or damaged, these sculptors would melt wax into marble dust, using it to conceal the flaw or imperfection.

Conversely, when an honest sculptor presented their work to the patron, they would make the statement that their sculpture was “sine cera,” or “without wax.” Imagine how a collector would feel on that first hot day as the sculpture in their garden began to lose sections as they melted away.

When we sin, we should be disappointed in ourselves.  A bit of wax covering our flaws has exposed something ugly—our sinful nature. In 1 John 3:8, we read: “He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.”

We know that self-righteousness and legalism will not cover our sin and it is not what God asks of us. Only Jesus Christ was able to cover our sins through His Sacrifice. Paul instructs the church at Rome in this regard, and it applies to all of us.

He states in Romans 3:10-18:

“As it is written: There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one. Their throat is an open tomb; With their tongues they have practiced deceit; The poison of asps is under their lips; Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; Destruction and misery are in their ways;  And the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Paul is describing those who live not by following God, but by the ways of this world. We dishonor God with our disobedience; yet, He still loves us without condoning our sins. We just witnessed many around the world celebrating yet another pagan observance. The world waxed over its ongoing sin by closing a few stores and attending services on Sunday. This is not a sincere expression of obedience to God’s Law. It is about deceiving people to believe that they are drawing close to God through man’s rituals.

What does the Bible teach about sincerity? We read in Paul’s message to Timothy and the church, in 1 Timothy 1:5: “Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith…”

Paul is very clear: God expects a pure heart and a sincerity that is unshakable. Paul was commenting on the problem of false teachers who glorify themselves in their study of the law and belief that they abide in it. Paul reminds us that a life we live to honor and obey God is based on love. We are commanded to love unconditionally as God loves each of us. God forgives us when we sincerely repent, but we must alter our course. Paul adds in his message to Titus in chapter 2:7: “… in all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works; in doctrine showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility.”

If we conduct our lives in this manner, we are on the path that God requires of us. We are human, and therefore imperfect. We are, however, children of God, created in His image, and capable of good works and good choices. Like children, we can and should learn from our mistakes, and strive to do better each day. We also know that we should never glory in ourselves. Paul offers advice on this through his messages to Timothy at the Church at Ephesus, in 1 Timothy 6:17-19:

“Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share,  storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.”

We have spoken before of the need to live as servant leaders. That means to lead sincerely by example, as described in the Scriptures.

We must not cover over our faults and weaknesses—and we all have them! We must repair our imperfections with God’s love, mercy, and the help of His Holy Spirit. The opposite to doing this involves embracing sin, this world, and its limitations. This is not for God’s people—it is not for us!

by Norbert Link

We begin with Emanuel Macron’s victory over Marine Le Pen, continuing his role as French president, causing a sigh of relief in Europe but the joy might be short-lived.

We continue with several articles about Germany’s duplicity and troublesome relationship with Russia; the perceived downfall of Germany’s new weak chancellor, Olaf Scholz; and the allegation that Germany is complicit in Russia’s war crimes. In this regard, please view our new StandingWatch program, titled, “Weak German Government under Attack” 

We also report on fears of a coming nuclear war and Moscow’s alleged goal to conquer all of southern and eastern Ukraine.  We also speak on Austria’s surprising position on Ukraine’s desired EU membership.

We report on tensions in Jerusalem between Israel and Christians, and the claim that the recent violence on the Temple Mount was carefully staged by Abbas’ ruling party. Please view in this regard our recent StandingWatch program, titled, “Time to Build the Third Temple in the Face of Violence?”

We speak on the continuing fight between the left-liberal Disney organization and the conservative government in Florida; Dr. Fauci’s ignorant comments; Google’s new “inclusive language function design”; and Obama’s hypocritical statements.   

Macron Remains President

The Sun wrote on April 24:

“[Macron] will become the first French President to be re-elected in 20 years, thumping his far-right rival by 16 percentage points in Sunday’s count… Le Pen quickly conceded defeat…

“Turnout was… the lowest… in more than 40 years, with voter abstention at its highest level since 1969 at 28 per cent…

“Brussels can breathe a sigh of relief after fears a shock victory for Le Pen in today’s presidential election failed to materialise. Experts claim the far-right Eurosceptic’s election win would cement ‘the end of the EU as we know it’. They said Le Pen’s win would have put France ‘on a direct collision course’ with EU rules and bring the whole institution crashing down.

“James Shields, Professor of French Politics at the University of Warwick, says a Le Pen victory would ‘herald drastic changes in terms of France’s place within the EU.’ He told The Sun Online: ‘… her programme, if implemented, would pose critical challenges to France’s continued membership of the EU.’”

The EU is delighted in Macron’s victory. Scholz was the first to congratulate him via phone. Bild Online wrote that Scholz’s joy might be short-lived, as Macron will demand from him to take a stronger position against Russia.   

Macron Europe’s De Facto Leader?

Express wrote on April 25:

“EMMANUEL MACRON’s election victory will see an escalation of his ambitions for the EU, beginning from the final formation of a united army for the bloc… France, a founding member of the EU, has been at the centre of efforts to integrate Europe since the end of World War Two… The French leader is now expected to push even further with his pro-EU agenda.”

The Irish Times wrote on April 15:

“With a renewed mandate, Macron now has the power to make his presidency truly transformational. But that will require him to change. His arrogance and impatience have alienated many voters… Now, with Angela Merkel off the stage and her successor Olaf Scholz still finding his feet [a polite way of saying, Scholz is weak and indecisive], Macron, his stature enhanced by re-election, has emerged as the EU’s de facto leader. That means the whole of Europe, not just France, has a stake in his success.”

The question is, how is “success” defined? It could very well end up in disaster.

Germany Is Beholden to Putin

The Los Angeles Times wrote on April 21, 2022

“As the savage war in Ukraine continues, the world expects Germany, Europe’s largest economy and a political heavyweight, to play a central role in the fight to isolate and stop Russia. But how serious is Germany about supporting Ukraine?

“On Feb. 27, in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced ‘a historic change.’… Yet almost two months after Scholz’s historic announcement, not much has happened on any of these fronts. Despite criticism from international observers and its own ministers, the German government has slow-walked its support for Ukraine.

“Military aid has yet to be delivered. Estonia and the Czech Republic, far smaller countries than Germany, have donated more weaponry and arms to Ukraine than Germany has since the war began. No heavy weapons such as tanks, artillery or advanced air defense systems have been delivered at all. Ukraine has offered to buy 100 German tanks, but Germany has balked, arguing that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has to reach a joint decision among its members on the deal first…

“Last week, Scholz announced Germany would provide $1 billion to Ukraine. That is likely to get parliamentary approval, but a decision has been delayed until June. Meanwhile, Russia receives $1 billion a day from Germany and other European countries from sales of its oil and gas. Germany is more dependent on Russian gas and oil than the rest of Europe, so cutting off its dependence would be a powerful signal of credible commitment to Ukraine…

“So what’s stopping Germany? The inertia on economic and military aid cannot be explained by lack of popular support, potential damage to the German economy or even government coalition politics. Nor is it a question of German guilt over its Nazi legacy. Instead, the failure to act exemplifies a persistent attitude among the German political establishment that there could be ‘no peace in Europe without Russia.’ In practice, this has meant prioritizing Russian interests. For decades, German elites dismissed the security interests of smaller countries around them, much as Russian President Vladimir Putin has…

“The ties between the German and Russian political elites reinforce this deference to Russia. Perhaps most notoriously, Gerhard Schröder, the former German chancellor, quickly gained a seat on the board of the Russian energy company Rosneft after leaving office and then energetically lobbied for Russian interests… Other politicians have defended what they see as joint German and Russian interests. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Germany’s president, defended Nord Stream 2 last year as ‘one of the last bridges between Russia and Europe’ and, despite Russian aggression, argued that ‘we must not lose sight of the bigger picture.’ Sigmar Gabriel, the former Social Democratic leader and energy minister, called for the ‘federalization of Ukraine’ after the 2014 Russian invasion of Crimea, widely understood to mean a permanent Russian role in Ukraine… Scholz, the current chancellor, previously sought friendly ties with Russia, while ignoring Putin’s invasion of Georgia in 2008 and the aggression against Ukraine in 2014. For many German elites, appeasing Russia neatly dovetails with what they see as Germany’s economic interests: not just energy, but the billions sunk by Russian oligarchs into German real estate and industries.

“In this mindset, addressing Ukraine’s survival without first considering Russian interests is nearly impossible. After all, Scholz’s predecessor, chancellor Angela Merkel, also ‘kept in mind what was tolerable for Russia,’ as one of her top foreign policy advisors put it. Germany is the political and economic leader of the European Union. Yet, time and again, it has deferred and submitted to Russia’s autocratic government. If the horrific invasion of a sovereign European country cannot change the minds of the politicians in Berlin, Germany is not only failing its moral obligations but also cementing its government’s reputation as being beholden to Putin.”

Things will change. Soon.

Germany and Russia… a Unique Relationship

The New York Times wrote on April 23:

“Gerhard Schröder, who is paid almost $1 million a year by Russian-controlled energy companies, has become a pariah. But he is also a symbol of Germany’s Russia policy…  ‘They all went along with it for the last 30 years,’ he said. ‘But suddenly everyone knows better..’ Mr. Schröder scoffed at the notion of now distancing himself personally from Mr. Putin, 69, whom he considers a friend and sees regularly…

“Mr. Schröder refuses to resign from his board seats on Russian energy companies, despite calls to do so from across the political spectrum… Distancing himself now, Mr. Schröder said, would lose him the trust of the one man who can end the war: Mr. Putin. Even so, after all of his years of close relations with Mr. Putin, he walked away with nothing during his one brief interlude trying to mediate in the Ukraine conflict…

“Mr. Schröder distanced himself from the war, though not from Mr. Putin. I asked about the by-now notorious atrocities in Bucha, a Kyiv suburb. ‘That has to be investigated,’ Mr. Schröder said, but added that he did not think those orders would have come from Mr. Putin, but from a lower authority…

“Mr. Schröder’s entanglement with the Russian president and Kremlin-controlled energy companies overshadows all he achieved in seven years as chancellor, from 1998 to 2005, a pivotal period of leadership when he was lauded for refusing to join the United States in the Iraq war; giving immigrants a regular path to citizenship; and putting in place far-reaching labor market overhauls that would pave the way for a decade of growth under his successor, Angela Merkel….

“But even his fiercest critics acknowledge that Mr. Schröder’s close and lucrative dealings with Russia are also emblematic of his country’s decades-old approach of engagement with Russia. Lobbied aggressively by Germany’s export industry and cheered on by labor unions, successive chancellors, including Ms. Merkel, collectively engineered Germany’s dependency on Russian energy. ‘Schröder is the tip of the iceberg,’ said Wolfgang Ischinger, a former ambassador to the United States and veteran diplomat. ‘But there is a whole iceberg below him.’…

“When it came to pipelines, Mr. Schröder was not the first. They were being built between Germany and Russia even during the Cold War. Under Brandt, Germany signed a major pipeline project with Moscow, in 1970. His successor Helmut Schmidt … oversaw an expansion of the pipelines, including another big project known as the West Siberia Pipeline… During his own time in office, from 1998 to 2005, Mr. Schröder shepherded through Germany’s next pipeline project, Nord Stream 1. ‘You can’t blame Schröder for Nord Stream 1,’ Mr. Ischinger said. ‘Most German politicians, whether in government or in opposition, did not critically question this. No one asked whether we were laying the foundation for getting ourselves into an unhealthy dependence.’…

“Once Nord Stream 1 was operational, Mr. Schröder set about lobbying for a second pipeline: Nord Stream 2… was approved in June 2015, the same year that Gazprom was also allowed under the Merkel government to buy Germany’s biggest strategic gas-storage facility, where it has kept levels of gas conspicuously low for the past year in what may have been preparation for providing leverage for Mr. Putin in his war…

“What if Russia turns off the tap? ‘It won’t happen,’ Mr. Schröder said. But if it did, ‘then I would resign.’… Mr. Schröder holds to his unwavering belief that peace and prosperity in Germany and Europe will always depend on dialogue with Russia… ‘You can’t isolate a country like Russia in the long run, neither politically nor economically,’ he said. ‘German industry needs the raw materials that Russia has. It’s not just oil and gas, it’s also rare earths. And these are raw materials that cannot simply be substituted… When this war is over… we will have to go back to dealing with Russia. We always do.’”

Maybe so. For a while… But notice the next article.

Moscow Expels German Diplomats

Insider wrote on April 25:

“Moscow said Monday it was expelling 40 German diplomats in response to the ‘unfriendly decision’ by Berlin to kick out Russian diplomats over the conflict in Ukraine…

“‘The 40 Russian diplomats in Germany whom we expelled three weeks ago did not serve diplomacy for a single day during their stay in Germany,’ Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said in a statement. ‘Rather, these people worked systematically for years against our freedom and against cohesion in our society,’ she said… The German diplomats in Russia, meanwhile, ‘have not done anything wrong’, Baerbock said… ‘They went to Russia with openness, curiosity and great commitment to serve our bilateral relations there.’

“Baerbock had said earlier that Germany was expelling the Russians in response to the ‘unbelievable brutality’ of Russian forces in its pro-Western neighbour Ukraine. The Russian foreign ministry on Monday called Baerbock’s words ‘unacceptable’…”

Baerbock’s words are quite contradictory. In spite of Germany’s soft approach towards Russia, it does not help the German-Russian relationship.

Russia Cuts Natural Gas to Poland and Bulgaria

The Associated Press wrote on April 27:

“Russia cut off natural gas to NATO members Poland and Bulgaria on Wednesday and threatened to do the same to other countries, dramatically escalating its standoff with the West…  A day after the U.S. and other Western allies vowed to speed more and heavier weapons to Ukraine, the Kremlin used its most essential export as leverage against two of Kyiv’s staunch backers. Gas prices in Europe shot up on the news…

“The gas cuts do not immediately put the two countries in dire trouble. Poland has been working for several years to line up other sources of energy, and the continent is heading into summer, making gas less essential for households. Yet the cutoff and the Kremlin warning that other countries could be next sent shivers of worry through the 27-nation European Union…”

Gazprom stated it was shutting off the two countries as they refused to pay in Russian rubles.

Biden Pushed Germany to Delay Russian Oil Ban?

Newsmax reported on April 25:

“Germany’s decision to not immediately end Russian oil imports… came at the urgent request of the Biden administration, a senior European official involved in Russian sanctions tells Newsmax… ‘until later this year and after the U.S. midterm elections.’

“The White House appears to believe it has a chance to keep the Senate in Democrat hands – but that opportunity could be endangered from a serious spike in oil prices if Germany had to start buying oil from global markets. Earlier this month, President Biden signed a law that bans all Russian imports of oil, gas, and coal to the U.S. But Biden had been reluctant to approve such a ban fearing the already high cost of gasoline would grow, even though the U.S. only imports 3% of crude oil from Russia.

“House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and other Congressional Democrats, led the charge on banning Russian oil imports.

“German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock announced last Wednesday that Germany will stop importing half of its oil from Russia by summer with the remainder closed down at year’s end. But those comments were quickly qualified by Germany’s Finance Minister Christian Lindner, who suggested that a quick cut-off of Russian oil won’t happen anytime soon.”

Germany Bending to International Pressure

Deutsche Welle wrote on April 26:

“After weeks of mounting pressure, the German government will now supply heavy military equipment to Ukraine… The German government on Tuesday confirmed reports that it will approve a delivery of ‘Gepard’ anti-aircraft tanks…  German Defense Minister Christina Lambrecht… also said that Berlin was working to train Ukrainian soldiers on German soil. ‘We are working together with our American friends in training Ukrainian troops on artillery systems on German soil,’ the minister said….”

But as we point out in our new StandingWatch program, titled, “Weak German Government under Attack” , huge problems are associated with the delivery of those tanks.

German Lawmakers Approve Heavy Weapons for Ukraine

Deutsche Welle wrote on April 28:

 “In a historic move, lawmakers in Germany have given the official green light to send ‘heavy weapons and complex systems’ to Ukraine…  with 586 votes in favor, 100 against, and seven abstentions… after the government held off for weeks on sending heavy equipment…

 “The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) opposed the initiative, saying that it felt close to a declaration of war… and ‘could make us party to a nuclear war…’  The socialist Left Party was also against the move… [and] said that delivering more weapons would simply make the war last longer. In response, Nils Schmid, from the ruling SPD party, said weapons’ deliveries would help end the war faster by putting Ukraine in a position of strength…

“But the move is not likely to help Scholz shake the accusations of being indecisive on Ukraine. A new dpa/YouGov poll suggests some 45% of Germans are unhappy with his course in the crisis, compared to 37% who approve of his response to the war.”

Germany’s Duplicity

The Daily Mail wrote on April 23:

“France and Germany sold £230million worth of military hardware to Moscow which was likely used in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to an EU analysis. It should have been impossible to do so owing to an EU embargo that banned selling arms to Russia following the 2014 annexation of Crimea.  Last month, it was discovered that France, Germany and Italy used a loophole in the ban. They were just three of at least 10 EU member states to export almost €350million (£293million) in equipment that included missiles, rockets, guns and bombs… 78 per cent of this total was supplied by French and German firms.

“The EU banned ‘the direct or indirect sale, supply, transfer or export of arms and related material of all types, including weapons and ammunition, military vehicles and equipment, paramilitary equipment, and spare parts therefore, to Russia’ eight years ago.

However, countries were able to sell hundreds of millions of pounds worth of kit to Russia despite the ban using a backdoor technicality that permitted contracts signed before August 1, 2014, or additional contracts that would help conclude those deals… Earlier this month, it was revealed that the European Union had sent almost €1billion to Russia each day for energy since the war in Ukraine began.

“German Chancelor Olaf Scholz has faced sharp criticism for failing to deliver heavy weapons to the besieged country, such as tanks and howitzers, to fend off savage Russian attacks. The leader said he feared that providing Ukraine with tanks could spark a nuclear war. Other Western allies have stepped up their military shipments to Volodymyr Zelensky’s forces but Scholz has held firm in his bid not to upset Vladimir Putin. Instead, on Tuesday, he said Germany would provide Ukraine with £830million to buy their own weapons.

“Asked in an extensive interview published on Friday why he thought delivering tanks could lead to nuclear war, he said there was no rule book that stated when Germany could be considered a party to the war in Ukraine.”

The Downfall of Olaf Scholz

The Local wrote on April 22:

“Contrary to what many commentators are saying, what’s most surprising about Olaf Scholz’ precipitous fall in popularity is not how quickly it has happened – but rather how slowly…

“In what seems like an eternity ago, back in early February when the Ukraine war was still a ‘Ukraine crisis’, Joe Biden welcomed Olaf Scholz on his first official visit to the White House and, despite the fact our Chancellor refused to make clear that Nord Stream 2 would be cancelled if Russia invaded Ukraine, called Germany a ‘reliable partner’ and did his best to keep his frustration in check…

“Yet it’s been downhill from there on in…  he shrank back from any immediate measures which might prove too radical: no heavy weapons for the Ukraine; no embargo on Russian gas…  The result is widespread dissatisfaction with Scholz’ government and, naturally, with Scholz himself.

“… Scholz is still applying the methods of the Merkel years – delaying, delegating down to committees, and hoping problems solve themselves – in circumstances which he himself has publicly identified as radically different… No one is expecting miracles, but having come to power implicitly promising to explain and justify his policies more than his predecessor Angela Merkel… Scholz has now… retreated back into the Chancellery. His silence, both on the Ukraine and on other pressing issues.. is leaving too much room for interpretation – and dissatisfaction.”

Germany Complicit in Russia’s War Crimes

The Local wrote on April 22:

“Many of those murdered during Germany’s singular historic crime, the Holocaust, were deported from what is today Ukraine; many others never even made it that far, summarily shot like the tens of thousands at Babyn Jar near Kyiv in 1941. Now, eighty years on, civilians have once again been executed in the Kyiv suburbs and there may have been attacks with chemical weapons further east. While Germany is not the perpetrator this time, it is complicit.

“The problem is gas. For despite all the tough talk and sanctions, Germany is still, like several other European nations, transferring eight-figure sums to Moscow in return for gas deliveries on a daily basis. We are doing this because half of the gas in our network is piped in straight from Russia…

“Germany’s dependency on Russian gas is an abject national failure several decades in the making and so cannot be fixed overnight. But, to be blunt, we… have made our bed and must now lie in it. We need to stop importing Putin’s gas now. Not tomorrow, not next week, and not at the end of the year…

“How many more massacres have to be uncovered before we take our historical responsibility seriously when history actually comes calling? How many Buchas does it take before we feel ready to embargo Russian gas: two, three, four? And are we really going to wait to find out whether Putin’s army has used chemical weapons on innocent Ukrainians before we act?”

The Fear of Nuclear War

The Daily Mail wrote on April 23:

“Putin’s deranged regime has announced it will deploy the fearsome nuclear-capable ‘Satan II’ missile it recently tested in a show of strength by autumn, in a further ratcheting of tensions between Russia and the West as Moscow redoubles its brutal war on Ukraine.

“The Sarmat missile is said to be the world’s longest-range intercontinental ballistic missile, capable of striking a target 11,200 miles away – meaning it could easily strike targets in the US and Europe. Western military experts said the Sarmat is capable of carrying 10 or more nuclear warheads and decoys – easily enough to wipe out Britain or France in a single strike…”

The Sun added on April 22:

“Russia successfully test-launched the missile on Wednesday with video showing the enormous 115-foot missile being launched from an underground silo, triggering an enormous fireball. It travelled almost the entire length of Russia – almost 3,600 miles – in around 15 minutes.

“The deadly projectile, nicknamed Satan 2, can fly 11,000 miles, carry more than 12 warheads… The separate warheads in the Satan 2 missile are capable of detaching from the main 100-tonne missile before travelling towards their target at hypersonic speeds. The bombs are 1,000 more powerful than those dropped by the US on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan during World War Two. This means they are capable of pulverising an area the size of England and Wales or Texas in the USA.”

In a previous article, the Sun wrote on April 20:

“Military expert Dr Paul Craig Roberts sensationally claimed that the ‘five or six’ of the Russian missiles could wipe out the entire US east coast… it has been reported that the weapon could ‘wipe out an area of the size of England and Wales twice over.”

Ultimately, nuclear weapons will be used by Russia and its allies against Western Europe, including Germany—not against the USA or the UK, as they will have been destroyed by Western Europe in a nuclear war BEFORE nuclear war between Western Europe and Far Eastern nations, including Russia, breaks out.

“Moscow Aims to Capture Southern Ukraine”

The Algemeiner wrote on April 23:

“A Russian general said on Friday that Moscow wants to seize all of southern and eastern Ukraine, far wider war aims than it had acknowledged.

“Rustam Minnekayev, deputy commander of Russia’s central military district, was quoted by Russian state news agencies as saying Moscow aimed to seize the entire eastern Donbas region, link up with the Crimea peninsula, and capture Ukraine’s entire south as far as a breakaway, Russian-occupied region of Moldova…

“Minnekayev… said Russian speakers there were oppressed, the same justification Moscow has given for its interventions in Ukraine since 2014, which Western countries call a baseless pretext…

“Pope Francis dropped plans to meet in June with Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, a Putin ally and backer of the war. Francis [said] the plan was suspended because Vatican diplomats advised that such a meeting ‘could lend itself to much confusion at this moment.’”

Austria: Ukraine Should Not Become Part of EU

Fox News wrote on April 24:

“Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg spoke at the 14th European media summit this week, saying that Ukraine should not receive candidate status in June. He reiterated Austria’s dedication to neutrality as a key element of the nation’s ‘self-definition.’ ‘We don’t belong to any military alliance and we don’t want to…’ [He] said Ukraine should not, in principle, become a member even in the future…

“Ukraine’s foreign ministry expressed disappointment with Austria’s stance, calling the Austrian official’s statement ‘short-sighted’ and ‘not in the interests of the united Europe’…, adding that postponing Ukraine’s membership means ‘indulging Putin’s aggressive plans.’

“But around 40% of Austrians consider the government’s position on Ukraine as ‘on the whole correct,’ while 23% believe the government is ‘too pro-Ukraine’ and 17% ‘too pro-Russia,’ according to Heute.”

Tensions Between Israel and Christians in Jerusalem

The Associated Press wrote on April 23:

“Christians celebrated their ‘Holy Fire’ ceremony at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem on Saturday against a backdrop of rising tensions with Israel, which imposed new restrictions on attendance this year that it said were needed for safety. Israel says it wants to prevent another disaster after a crowd stampede at a packed Jewish holy site last year left 45 people dead.

“Christian leaders say there’s no need to alter a ceremony that has been held for centuries… Eastern Orthodox Christians believe that on the Saturday before Easter a miraculous flame appears inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre… built on the site where Christians believe Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected…”

Violence Carefully Staged

Israel Today wrote on April 24:

“Hamas sees itself as the patron of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Haram al Sharif, the Temple Mount…

“The disinformation campaign portrayed Israel as an ‘aggressor,’ while it also was falsely claimed that Israel was making a new attempt to change the status quo on the Temple Mount… Third parties then also started to get involved in the conflict and issued condemnations over ‘Israeli violence’ and an alleged ‘change of the Israeli policy towards the Al-Aqsa Mosque.’ Turkey’s President… Erdogan… called PA leader… Abbas and condemned Israel’s ‘intervention and provocations’ on Haram al-Sharif… King Abdullah II of Jordan also got involved in the conflict and ordered his government to obtain regional and international support for more pressure on Israel…

“It has now also been established that the acts of violence that started last Friday on the eve of Passover were organized… Zreiyer, a member of Abbas’ ruling Fatah faction, organized the outbreak of violence. He brought hundreds of young Palestinian Arabs to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and ordered them to prepare for a confrontation with the Israeli police. The group of youths came from Arab Jerusalem and also included Hamas members. The gang received funding from the PA and Turkey to prepare for the battle over the Temple Mount…”

A Temple in Jerusalem

Israel Today wrote on April 25:

“After the 1967 Six Day War, during which the Temple Mount was captured, Israel did not take advantage of the situation. Moshe Dayan, who served as Minister of Defense at the time, returned rule over the site to the Jordanian[s]…

“Many believe that a decision by Israel to retake control of the Temple Mount will ignite a regional war that could lead to a third world war. Whether or not that would happen, it is clear from Scripture that the day is coming when, ‘“I will shake heaven and earth, and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this Temple with glory,’ says the Lord of Hosts.’ Haggai 2:6-7. And, ‘I will bring them to my holy mountain of Jerusalem and will fill them with joy in my house of prayer. Because my Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations.’ Isaiah 56:7.”

And so it will be!

Disney Lost Special Tax Status in Florida

Deutsche Welle wrote on April 21:

“Walt Disney Co. lost its special tax status in Florida on Friday after Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law a bill scrapping the company’s self-governing status in the area around its Orlando theme park complex. Florida’s Republican-dominated House of Representatives passed the bill on Thursday in a 68-38 vote, following a previous 23-16 vote in the state’s senate.

“Before urging Florida’s legislature to back the new measure, DeSantis had criticized Disney for its opposition to another bill banning discussions on sexual orientation and gender identity for students under age 9..

“Disney initially avoided taking a stand on the legislation, but later halted political donations in Florida following pressure from some of the company’s employees and LGBTQ rights groups…

“‘If Disney wants to pick a fight, they chose the wrong guy,’ DeSantis recently wrote… ‘Disney is a guest in Florida. Today we remind them,’ Republican lawmaker Randy Fine tweeted. ‘Disney doesn’t say a word about the dictatorship in China because it would cost them billions of dollars,’ Republican Senator Marco Rubio said in a tweet. ‘But they have no problem using their corporate power to lie about laws passed by democratically elected legislators in Florida.’

“The southeastern US state of Florida declared a special area, the Reedy Creek Improvement District, in 1967 to facilitate the construction of the Disney World theme park near the city of Orlando… The Disney district covers 100 square kilometers and includes the cities of Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista as well as land in Orange and Osceola counties in central Florida. Disney runs the district and is responsible for collecting taxes and guaranteeing municipal services such as fire-fighting, energy, garbage collection, water treatment and road maintenance. In exchange, the company has been exempted from paying taxes in the territory. Under Florida law, if the district is dissolved its assets and debts could be transferred to local governments that surround the area.”

Breitbart added on April 23:

“The Reedy Creek district, along with several other similarly situated special tax districts, will be dissolved effective June 1, 2023. However, the law allows the districts to be reestablished in the future, which could happen after further negotiation.”

Biden and the Democrats are not happy about the developments in Florida.

Daily Mail wrote on April 22:

“President Joe Biden criticized ‘ugly’ Republicans for targeting Disney and said the GOP has been taken over by the ‘far right’ in his speeches at two Democratic fundraisers on the West Coast on Thursday.”

What this is really all about is the push by the left to indoctrinate young school children UNDER AGE 9 with their political agenda.

Fauci the “Expert”?

Newsmax wrote on April 22:

“The White House’s chief medical adviser apparently won’t let go of the recent mask mandate cancellation… Fauci ripped U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle for dropping the federal mask mandate for public transportation, telling CBS News the Florida-based judge has ‘no experience’ in the medical field… Fauci similarly dismissed Judge Mizelle’s ‘unfortunate ruling’…

“Current data suggests that COVID-19 infections in America have precipitously declined in recent weeks, but that’s not how Fauci views the trends. ‘It’s obvious to everyone we’re seeing that infections are on the rise…’ Fauci told CBS News.

“… the Justice Department filed a notice that it would appeal Judge Mizelle’s ruling, at the behest of the CDC and White House… Fauci did not acknowledge that Americans now have tremendous access to COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, or how the Biden administration still wants to repeal the CDC’s Title 42 health order at the U.S.-Mexico border — which, on the surface, runs directly against the logic behind the mask mandate for public transit.”

Dr. Fauci, even though not a lawyer, should still realize that Judge Mizelle did not utter a scientific finding in the medical field, but a legal finding showing the unconstitutionality of the mask mandate.

White House Contradicts Fauci

Fox News wrote on April 24:

‘The White House has contradicted Dr. Anthony Fauci on mask mandate decisions, saying that the judiciary plays an ‘important role’ and simply made an ‘incorrect decision’…. Fauci told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto that it’s a ‘bad precedent when decisions about public health issues are made by people, be they judges or what have you, that don’t have experience or expertise in public health.’”

The problem is, Dr. Fauci uttered numerous false opinions and made many contradictory recommendations.

“Google Goes Woke!”

Daily Mail wrote on April 25:

“Google has launched an ‘inclusive language’ function designed to avoid the use of politically incorrect words. Users typing ‘landlord’ will see a warning that it ‘may not be inclusive to all readers’ with the suggestion they should try ‘property owner’ or ‘proprietor’ instead.

The word ‘humankind’ is a suggested alternative to what the online giant apparently sees as the controversial term ‘mankind’. Gender specific terms such as ‘policemen’ or ‘housewife’ should also be replaced by ‘police officers’ and ‘stay-at-home spouse’, according to the new Google Document style programme. It is now being rolled out to what the firm calls enterprise-level users. Many computer document systems use methods to correct spelling and grammar.

“But nudging users towards woke language is being seen by critics as a step too far. Tests on the system have also thrown up major flaws… it suggested President John F Kennedy’s inaugural address should say ‘for all humankind’ instead of ‘for all mankind’…”

Insane!

EU to Restrict Free Speech (again) on Musk’s Twitter?

Bloomberg wrote on April 26:

“Elon Musk vowed to prioritize free speech as Twitter Inc’s new owner, but a senior official from the European Union has warned the world’s richest person will still have to contend with the region’s strict content rules… The EU approved the Digital Service Act over the weekend, giving European governments new power to take down illegal content, and demand platforms do more to tackle harmful content.

“Possibly even more crucial is the DSA’s requirement that companies like Twitter submit annual reports to the EU detailing how they’re handling systemic risks posed by harmful content…

“[Twitter] famously banned former U.S. President Donald Trump from the site last year… The move provoked condemnation from conservatives in the U.S., who argued the ban hindered free speech….

“There’s also the prospect of major financial penalties if Musk and the EU disagree. If the company doesn’t comply with the DSA, the EU can issue fines of as much as 6% of a company’s annual revenue and even ban the platform from operating in the bloc.”

The Ron Paul Institute asked the pertinent question: “How far will authorities go to restrict freedom of expression?” The answer is obvious: Very far; indeed, without any limits. 

Obama—“Liar of the Year”?

The New York Post wrote on April 22:

“In a Stanford University speech Thursday, Obama called on Big Tech to ‘redesign’ itself to face the dangers disinformation allegedly poses to the nation. Hilariously, he cited his own ‘failure to fully appreciate . . . just how susceptible we had become to lies and conspiracy theories’ during his time in office…

“Obama, after all, won PolitiFact’s ‘Lie of the Year’ Award in 2013 for his endlessly repeated claim that under ObamaCare, ‘if you like your health plan, you can keep it.’  This lie was treated as fact and amplified by major media across the US for naked political purposes. I.e., a textbook example of actual disinformation… The New York Times invented a new, Orwellian term as camouflage for the lie: ‘incorrect promise.’

“Then there was Benghazi, where his administration blamed an attack by an al Qaeda affiliate against a US consular outpost on an inflammatory YouTube video — and again saw the lie propped up by big media properties…

“Don’t forget his lie about whether he ever set a red line around Bashar al-Assad’s use of chemical weapons in Syria. He did. On record. Then, insanely, he literally claimed he hadn’t. Again, although he’d been caught in an obvious, clumsy lie, our fearless fact-checking journalists got busy trying to somehow make it reality. [The] Washington Post… refused to award it any of [the] trademark ‘Pinocchios.’

“… Obama presided over the start of the Russiagate narrative, now revealed as another textbook disinfo operation — one of the most successful in recent US history, not only kneecapping the Trump administration but leaving tens of millions of Americans still convinced of the lie even today.

“The ex-president is utterly comfortable with the media spreading disinformation, as long as it benefits his team…”

Lest we forget another possible lie: The dubious claim that Obama was born in the United States. Overwhelming evidence suggests the opposite (we have reported extensively in our Current Events about the many nagging questions regarding Obama’s alleged birthplace), but the potential political fiasco resulting from exposing what might very well have been the truth was deemed too much to cope with for Democrats and Republicans alike. Even Trump gave in with some phony “explanations.”

Acknowledgement and Disclaimer

These Current Events are compiled and commented on by Norbert Link. We gratefully acknowledge the many contributions of news articles from our readership. The publication of articles in this section is not to be viewed as an endorsement or approval as to contents or accuracy of the selected articles, but they are published for the purpose of pointing at worldwide developments in the light of biblical end-time prophecy and godly instruction. Our own comments are provided in italics.

Since the beginning of the Bible, God has made it clear that we are to observe the Sabbath, for He re-created the surface of the earth in 6 days, after a catastrophe caused the earth to become void and empty, and He then rested on the seventh day – the Sabbath, which He created for mankind (Genesis 1:2-2:3; Mark 2:27-28).  The Bible reveals in Genesis 1:5 that the days start and end at sunset, in the evening: “God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening (sunset) and the morning were the first day.”

Many Scriptures associate the meaning of the word “evening” with “sunset” as for example in Leviticus 22:6-7: “The person who has touched any such thing shall be unclean until evening… And when the sun goes down he shall be clean.” We are also told in Leviticus 23:32 to keep God’s Sabbath “from evening to evening.”

The Bible is clear that days are to be counted from sunset to sunset, not midnight to midnight as society has it determined, and the Sabbath, which is the seventh and last day of the week, is to be counted from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset, a 24-hour period.

We state in our booklet, “God’s Commanded Holy Days“:

“God has revealed in His Word exactly when the Sabbath starts and when it ends. God reckons each day, including the Sabbath, beginning at sunset and continuing through until the following sunset. Today, we would say that the Seventh-Day Sabbath starts Friday evening, when the sun sets, and lasts until Saturday evening, at sunset.

“We know from the Jewish people when to keep the Sabbath. It is the Jews to whom God committed His revelations or His ‘oracles,’ as Paul clearly explains in Romans 3:1–2. These ‘oracles of God’ included the Old Testament Scriptures, as well as the knowledge of the week and of the Sacred Calendar. The Jews preserved the knowledge of which day the seventh day of the week is. Without an understanding of when a week begins and ends, we would not have been able to tell, from the Bible alone, which day the seventh day of the week actually is. Today, the Jews keep the Sabbath on Saturday, beginning Friday evening, at sunset. Nobody questions today that the Sabbath, as preserved by the Jews, is the seventh or last day of the week. All understand that Sunday is the first day of the week—although there have been some attempts in Europe to actually change the calendar in order to deceitfully pretend as if Sunday, and not Saturday, was the seventh day of the week.”

This includes all Sabbath days, including God’s commanded Holy Days, which should be kept from sunset to sunset. Quoting from our Q&A “Can You Prove From Scripture That According to God’s Reckoning, Days Start and End With Sunset?”, we state the following:

“Leviticus 23:32 describes the annual Holy Day of Atonement, which the Jews today call Yom Kippur. It is stated: ‘It shall be to you a Sabbath of solemn rest; and you shall afflict your souls [i.e., fast]; on the ninth day of the month at evening, FROM EVENING TO EVENING, you shall celebrate your sabbath.’ The New International Version renders this verse: ‘… From the evening of the ninth day of the month until the following evening you are to observe your sabbath.’

“But, this entire period, from the evening or sunset of the ninth day, until the evening or sunset of the tenth day, is defined as ‘the tenth day,’ as Leviticus 23:27 clearly shows: ‘Also the TENTH day of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement.’ This proves that the Bible reckons days from evening or sunset to evening or sunset.”

With this background, how then would someone keep the Sabbath in areas of the world where there wouldn’t be a sunset-to-sunset time period during certain times of the year?  For example, certain places in Alaska, Norway, Sweden, and other far northern or even southern areas would fall into that category. How is the Sabbath to be kept there?

Bibleask.org has this to say:

“Modern living provides some unique situations where keeping the Sabbath might have some questions. For example, keeping the Sabbath in space and the polar regions of the Earth like Alaska presents unique issues for Sabbath keepers. In the north of the Arctic Circle and south of the Antarctic Circle, a single period of daylight can last for a month or more during the summer, and the night lasts for a similar length of time in the winter.

“The Bible says, ‘It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest… from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath (Lev. 23:32).’ This means that the Sabbath should be kept from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset.

“Therefore, in the further regions of the earth and in countries where the sun doesn’t go down like the Polar zone, the timing of the Sabbath should be adjusted to the International Date Line. Example: permitting local rest-day adjustment, And believers may determine the Sabbath by the longitude that are further south or further north depending on which Polar zone they are in. Therefore, for those who live in Alaska, they can follow the time zone of Portland, Oregon. Thus, Sabbath keepers living in those areas can rely on the cycle of day and night in 24-hour periods. These periods are commonplace in most of the world.”

Someone from Sabbathtruth.com had this to say: “For the vast majority of the planet, we experience sunrise and sunset and that’s when you would start and end your Sabbath. I have friends who live up in Alaska and what they do is from 6:00 to 6:00. Six o’clock one day to six o’clock the other, and they don’t go by the sun. They go by that 12-hour division of time that everyone else enjoys, or 24-hour division of time rather. So they just time it like that.”

A letter was written back in the Worldwide Church of God days asking the question about keeping the Sabbath in the arctic.  This is what was answered by the Personal Correspondence Department, Letter L163, which was included in a collection of the letters written under Herbert W. Armstrong, dated August 1, 1988:

“God has not made it impossible for His people to obey His laws.  God’s law is spiritual and is intended for all people, wherever they live on earth.  But His law is also practical and workable.

“In the far northern latitudes, the days are divided in the following manner:  About the beginning of summer, the sun almost touches the horizon once every 24 hours. When it reaches its lowest point, one day ends and another begins. About the beginning of winter, the sun comes up to, or almost up to, the horizon once every 24 hours. This also divides the days. The effect is that near the beginning of summer the seventh day is from midnight to midnight. Over the next six months, the beginning of the days drops back rapidly until near the beginning of winter the seventh day is from noon until noon.  The sun touching, or almost touching, the horizon corresponds to sunset in both cases.

“It should be noted, then, that God revealed the Sabbath commandment to people living in the temperate zone, where He defined the proper observance as being from evening to evening.  But in extreme latitudes where farming is not a factor and thus daylight is not associated with work, this rule is not practical or reasonable.  Jesus said, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath’ (Mark 2:27).  For this reason, the Church has made a judgment based on the spirit of the law.  Brethren living in areas crossed by or above the 60th parallel (parts of Alaska, Canada, and Sweden are examples) have been advised that it is proper to begin observance of the Sabbath at 6pm in cases where actual sunset time varies extremely.”

A helpful chart identifying the areas crossed by or above the 60^th parallel can be found in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/60th_parallel_north .

The Church of the Eternal God and its international affiliates agree with and follow the answer of the Worldwide Church of God, as quoted before, as to how to observe the Sabbath in the above-referenced parts of the world. In other areas, “nearly” but not quite crossed by the 60^th parallel, individual consultation with the ministry might be advisable.

Lead Writer: Michael Link

compiled by Dave Harris

“Weak German Government under Attack,” is the title of a new StandingWatch program, presented by Evangelist Norbert Link. Here is a summary:

The world disapproves of Germany’s conduct towards Ukraine. Germany’s chancellor Olaf Scholz is considered as being weak and indecisive, and far too much beholden to Putin. What does this mean for Germany’s future?

“Schwache deutsche Regierung unter Beschuss,” is the title of a new AufPostenStehen program, presented by Norbert Link. This German language program covers the same material as described above.

Our annual Church Conference begins on Friday, April 29^th and continues through Monday, May 2, 2022. Meetings will take place in Escondido, California, with several ministers joining via the Internet.

“Gleichheit mit Gott in Seinem Reich?” is the title of this Sabbath’s new German sermon, presented by Norbert Link. Title in English: “Equality with God in His Kingdom?”

“Wie groß ist unsere Liebe/Hingabe?” the Offertory presented on the Last Day of Unleavened Bread in Germany by Steven Hammond, is now posted. Title in English: “How Big is Our Love/Devotion?”

“Unser Sündenkatalog…alles nicht so wichtig?” the sermon presented on the Last Day of Unleavened Bread by Norbert Link, is now posted. Title in English: “A Catalog of Sins—Not that Important?”

“Three Good Reasons to Give,” the Offertory presented on the Last Day of Unleavened Bread by Brian Gale, is now posted. Here is a summary:

Giving to the One Who created us all is a reflection of the priorities that we have in our life.  It is a privilege to give and we know that a blessing is promised by God for those who follow His instructions as we can read in Malachi 3.   This message gives three good reasons to give.

“A Catalog of Sins—Not that Important?”  the sermon presented on the Last Day of Unleavened Bread by Norbert Link, is now posted. Here is a summary:

Have you created a catalog of sins that distinguishes between important and not so important actions? Does the Bible teach the concept of the seven deadly sins? Or is every sin wrong and an abomination in God’s eyes? What does God call sin and an abomination anyway? And what does God say who will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Why does God designate certain character traits as “most important” in the law? And do you love God and neighbor when you break the spiritual law of the Ten Commandments?

“Unser geistlicher Kampf,” the sermonette presented last Sabbath in Germany by Robert Macher, is now posted. Title in English: “Our Spiritual Warfare.”

“Der Heilige Geist und Du!” the sermon presented last Sabbath in Germany by Thilo Hanstein, is now posted. Title in English: “The Holy Spirit and You.”

“Excuses,” the sermonette presented last Sabbath by Eric Rank, is now posted. Here is a summary:

If we want God to work in our lives, we have to put in the effort that He requires. When we choose to make excuses instead of taking action, we become unprofitable. By putting our faith to work we give God an opportunity to bless our efforts.

“Praise the Lord!” the sermon presented last Sabbath by Dave Harris, is now posted. Here is a summary:

Should we praise and worship God, and are there actually conditions for praising Him? The Bible reveals how and why God accepts praise from those who obey Him.